“What could/should Apple do to take sales and profits to the next level? Simple. Release an Apple branded Windows-based PC. I know, I know, this kind of talk is bound to upset the hardened Apple fanatic, but it makes perfect sense. One of the things that’s undoubtedly helped boost Mac sales is Boot Camp. Now there’s no punishment for switching platforms because you can take your old platform with you, but just as some people got tired of paying the Microsoft tax when they wanted a PC to run Linux on it, people who want Apple hardware in order to run Windows on it will eventually see the Mac OS as an Apple tax. Why doesn’t Jobs and the crew at Cupertino just skip that whole Apple tax step and offer customers a choice of operating systems. Since Windows is the dominant OS at present, that’s a good place to start, but if Apple really wants to offer the customer real choice, Linux would also be great,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blogs for ZDNet.
“If Apple really wants to rock investors and take profits to the next level, it should start offering Windows-based Macs. Profits would skyrocket, Apple would enter an existing market and shake it up, investors would be happy because Apple’s market share would explode and everyone would be happy,” Kingsley-Hughes writes.
Full article here.
Why doesn’t BMW just start offering vehicles with 3-cylinder Suzuki engines? Kingsley-Hughes obviously doesn’t get it: Windows tries to be an upside-down and ass-backwards fake Mac; and an older Mac, at that. Based on history, one would imagine that Apple CEO Steve Jobs thinks Windoze is a bad rip-off of his own company’s OS, perpetrated and inflicted upon the world by Bill Gates. The very last thing that an Apple headed by Steve Jobs would ever do would be to execute Kingsley-Hughes’ dopey, wrong-headed lunacy.
The world made a mistake with Windows. They must be educated; and, slowly, they are learning. Windows is junk compared to Mac OS X. Frustrating, uninspiring, derivative junk. Offering junk when you have a vastly superior product is not a recipe for success.
Boot Camp exists to provide a “Windows Insecurity Blanket” for the ignorant masses. It is an educational tool. It embraces junk in order to ultimately extinguish it. Boot Camp entices the Windows-only sufferers and quickly teaches them via simple comparison that, contrary to their belief, they do not need Windows and that they greatly prefer Macintosh.
Boot Camp works quite nicely, thank you.
THE JOKE OF THE DAY
If this wasn’t written just to get web hits, then it just proves that any IDIOT can be a blogger for ZDNet.
Stuck in a Windows forest for too long, he has been reduced to being a blind, blubbering fool. When he can escape and see more, all he can see is more Windows forest.
Apple don´t try to do it,if you do it you are going to bankrupt,the only thing you can do is low the price of actual mac line.
You’re too late. Savage already put out a book: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.
MDN Word: boys, as in “Now you boys play nice!”
Windows based Macs are already available running VMware and Parallels and soon boot camp. No Apple will not feature a Mac running Windows only because it is just plain STUPID!! OSX is a superior product as it stands in version 10.4, Leopard will just put an exclamation point on just how superior it really is versus XP or Vista.
Sales are booming and with 10.5 coming they will just grow larger without the need of Windows and all of its excess baggage like viruses, spyware, and lack of anything worth looking at or using.
If Apple sold Windows machines, they would have to license Windows as an OEM. The terms of Microsoft’s OEM agreement is that the OEM provides the user support. That’s a losing proposition for any company that treasures customer satisfaction.
Apple’s current strategy is much better: allow the customer to install retail versions of Windows with Bootcamp. That allows Apple to reap the benefits of selling Windows machines without any of the disadvantages of being an OEM.
I read his article, his main complaint is not really with Bootcamp, its paying for the Mac OS X when he buys a computer from Apple (Apple Tax) he calls it.
So, have you found a home PC yet, that you can opt out of buying Windows? (Microsoft Tax). Dell has business machines with Ubuntu installed, but I did not find any in the “Home” section, please correct me if I am wrong.
So what’s wrong with Bootcamp? He thinks it is too much trouble to have to 1) create a partition, 2) install the Windows OS and 3) install the Apple drivers.
Heh, I do that on my PC’s every 6-12 months anyway because things have gotten so out of hand, its easier than trying to fix it.
It is nice to have the freedom of running whatever application or game you want to run at full hardware speeds, so run Bootcamp if you want. What’s the big deal?
I bought my first mac in December last year. The fact that windows could run on it was a big plus point for me, just incase I ever need to use it for whatever reason. I had never ever used a mac in my life before I bought my own.
How many times have I used windows on my mac in the 11 months of ownership?
Once. To see what it looked like. A couple of weeks ago. I have never looked back.
If Apple made a computer that was only pre-loaded with Windows, it would not be a Mac. It would be an Apple PC. If someone buys a Mac to run Windows, there is no “Mac Tax”. It’s called a galss of ice water to those in hell.
ah… oh… HAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAA!!!!!
This writer has a thing or two to learn about Apple…. and Windows for that matter.
wow, mdn magic word: matter
@RealtorBEN and Atacokai
I pretty much agree,
Make Boot Camp “OEM” pre installed with windows XP an option, the mass’s do not know how, or want to set up Boot Camp, and Apple with OEM pricing could make it more affordable for those that need , or think they need Windows. I think it should not be the default though.
For once in a long time….The take nails it on the head.
Glad to see y’all are back from the Kool Aid rehab center.
Just my $0.02
And they call US lemmings!
@wally, you still don’t get it, do you? It is all about the WHOLE user experience. Selling only half of the equation is no equation at all. It is an incomplete suggestion, nothing more. What makes a Mac a Mac is the whole package, OS X AND the hardware. The two are not meant to be mutually exclusive. Hence, the killing of the mac clone program by Jobs. Not to mention the existence of an OS X derivative on the iPhone, ipod and Apple TV. A portable mac everywhere you need it.
As others have so deftly noted, supporting that boat anchor of an OS (can it even be called that? An OS? Barely, I suppose) alone would KILL their profit margins.
ZuneTang- Brilliance! Well crafted post.
“Should Apple start offering Windows-based Macs?”
– NO
Also, no reason for the long article. Too many words for such a short answer.
Move along now.
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!
Other way round. OS X for PCs would be great. Charge the same price as Vista Ultimate and many would buy.
“Why doesn’t BMW just start offering vehicles with 3-cylinder Suzuki engines?”
that is a bad analogy. a beemer powered by a 3 cylinder zuk would run better than anything running windows……
No, Non, Niet, Neï, 01001110 01101111, etc.
Then, the machine that *IS* built for running Apple software would be pointless… I don’t think people will spend 2 times the money of a pc to buy a mac and run windows in it.
Should Apple start offering Windows based Macs?
F&*% NO!!!
Actually, it’s kind of stupid question because they already do!
Boot Camp anyone?
LOL… like most everyone………………….NO!
“You’re too late. Savage already put out a book: Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. “
having had the chance to hear Mr. Savage speak, i can safely say that based on experience alone he should be an expert in the field….
I, for one, only use one important application, AutoCAD, that runs on my Macs in Windoze. I hope that AutoDesk, and other software companies with important applications in specific fields, see the light and bring out their programs for Mac. I don’t think Apple should make PC machines, the software companies need to write for Mac.
No.
But, why shouldn’t Apple create an OS that works on PC’s. But better than any version of Windows. Wouldn’t that frost Microsoft!