From: "Teo Zenios" <teoz at
neo.rr.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 1:01 PM
From: "Randy McLaughlin" <cctalk at
randy482.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 12:56 PM
<snip>
I agree that more competition for Micro$loth is good.
The biggest problem is that Apple has been kept alive by several factors
two
of which are: $ from Willy boy and the simple
fact they are not just
another PC running Windoze.
If they become just another PC will they lose a marketing base and how
big
a
base could they lose?
Randy
www.s100-manuals.com
The only change a user would see when upgrading his G5 to an x86 Powermac
in
a few years is a speed increase, nothing more. People used to buy Macs in
the 68k era because they were the best desktop you can buy (multiple
monitors, PnP that worked, high memory ceiling, SCSI, etc) and the GUI
was
decent. During the early PPC era the machines only had the processor going
for them (very decent FPU) picking up standard x86 features (PCI, USB,
IDE,
etc). Today the only thing going for Apple is OSX (tightly written to the
hardware), and that is not going to change. People who don't like piecing
their machines together and going through driver hell will stick to the
Mac
no matter what was under the hood. Lately a Mac is for people who hate
Microsoft and don't like messing with Linux installs.
The point is once you have another X86 computer you will see pressure to use
the same software and pressure to use the same hardware. A huge portion of
the user base will want everything right now for no $.
This pressure that can be expected may lead (probably will lead) to a
homogenous PC environment.
Even if Apple tries to tie their software to their hardware how long will it
be before someone starts selling an emulated system on other systems. From
there will Apple watch people go that route or will they decide to directly
compete. By being able to take a cheap PC clone and running Apple software
or emulated software on it that will put even more pressure to bring down
the cost of Apple hardware. With cheaper hardware and software what
financial problems can that create for Apple?
Apple only needs to make Intel Mac that can run Windows, linux, and
OS/X, and to make sure that other's PC can not run OS/X. This is not
difficuilt, with the help from lawyers and an embedded Apple ID. Then
many people might be willing to pay $100 more to buy a MAC that can
run everything, other than to buy a Dell that can not run OS/X. Apple
will gain a lot of PC market share from Dell.
How long will Willy boy wait to sell XP on the new MAC's, if not Willy then
someone will.
Randy
www.s100-manuals.com