Read/Write Web wonders how Apple can win the PC battle

I've been to Disney; a lot of them are using Macs already but that's just part of the creative culture in the animation and design departments anyway. There's a fair amount of PCs on secretaries' desks and PC laptops and smartphones are around, and you'll have to pry the Linux boxes from ITs cold, dead fingers. It's mixed-format like most big offices and I don't see how they would be under any obligation to standardize just because one of their board members runs a computer company.

Steve Jobs is the biggest Disney stockholder, and a member of the Disney board. It's likely sometime soon, Disney will have Macs on all its desks. They may well be mini macs connected to existing monitors and keyboard so it wouldn't expensive as new computers go. Soon thereafter I can see Disney customers with matching setups. That's an inroad, wouldn't you say. Also, since Disney needs Apple's computer expertise to maintain the software and hardware of Pixar, and Apple needs Disney for a library of films and music, They may well either merge or become one company with Apple taking over Disney -- paying mostly with Apple stock and some cash.

When has Apple ever claimed they wanted to "win the PC battle"? As others have pointed out, they're in a specific, limited market and are doing well there.

Steve Jobs has said, onstage at MacWorld, that he wanted Apple to own the MP3 player market, and they did that.

Criticizing them for not making a stated goal is one thing, but it's ridiculous to criticize them for not doing something they aren't trying to do.

Apple isn't trying to win the PC battle. They're playing a different game with a different goal: profitability.

Simple.

Business are run by their IT departments. (The tail wagging the dog . . . right?)

If a company adopts the Apple platform, then they can trim people from the IT payroll. There is NO department head that will willingly allow that to happen. More payroll is more power!

A good illustration of that is the constant updates that require hundreds of man-hours and more personnel on the help desk. I've seen this at my local college when the latest version of Blackboard was rolled out. Buggy as all hell and practically non-functional.

There was absolutely NOTHING the matter with the old one.

--Dan

Quote: Steve Jobs, and by extension Apple, is highly focused. Microsoft has lots of more money and resources to go off and enter different markets. Apple is a smaller company and must pick and choose its territory carefully.

And as a stockholder in AAPL, I am so glad Apple is not following the Microsoft route. Outside of their cash-cows Windows OS/Server OS and Office suite, Microsoft has lost and is losing money on every venture it has tried is hand at. Look at their Home and Entertainment division - $6 billion and counting, and they just wrote off another $1 billion for failing XBox 360s!


Quote: Apple has always been a consumer company, and they are making a killing by selling great consumer devices (Macs, iPods, AppleTV, and iPhones) powered by industrial grade software with a delicious candycoating (OS X). You don't have to be number 1 to be incredibly successful, a statement that Apple and many other 'luxury brands' prove time and time again.

And again as an AAPL stockholder, their focus on great consumer devices has made both Apple, Inc. and my portfolio VERY rich.

I agree that I don't care if Mac wins the PC battle or not.
The only thing is that Macs have to be able to communicate with other PC over network (ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, whatever). So that customers are able to freely choose which computer is best for them.

Personally I switched from Windows to Mac and discovered that a computer is much more than just disk capacity and clockspeed. A computer is something that helps me creating home movies, be productive at work, and enjoy multimedia content (web, movies, music, TV, whatever). Apple was a surprise because it combines everything right out of the box with no catches. Try to buy a Windows based PC (had a Sony Vaio before, not exactly the cheapest computer on the market!!) and start editing movies the day you bought it...

I don't care if the majority of people look only at the price tag and the disk space, clockspeed of CPU. I have all these things, plus much more. And, at the end of the day, Windows users are amazed by the movies I create, by the ANTIVIRUS that I don't have, by the ease to connect to almost any network... I stopped counting the times the asked me: "how much did you pay for all that extra software to do everything". I loooove the face they do when I answer "nothing".

You see, Macs are for everyone who is discerning enough to look beyond the mere price tag. Should everyone buy a Mac? I think not. But a lot more people compared to today should...

It's the whole iPhone vs Windows Mobiles debate again. "What, I'm paying MORE for a phone that doesn't have 'basic' features that I never use?"

That oranges analogy, while pretty much correct, really is the reason why Apple can't and won't make ground in the PC market.
They simply don't offer a computer for people to just do simple things like surf the web, watch some movies and use things like Word and Excel cheaply.

The Mini is FAR to expensive for that still.
I almost had someone sold on buying a Mini, since he was/is sick of Windows. But when he saw he was spending over $600 bucks and not even getting a fucking keyboard and mouse, he walked away.

If Apple releases a $300-$400 dollar computer WITH a keyboard and mouse, they could probably make some huge gains.

"As a company, Microsoft can't do everything..."

They don't have to. Their MAIN business is blocking distribution channels for other vendors from putting their products on the shelves.

Or if that doesn't work, make sure the other companies products are placed in a bad location.

Or if that doesn't work, give their product for free until the other company goes bankrupt and then sell their software for more than they started at.

If that doesn't work, announce vapor ware that will "far better than brand x is selling now." Followed up with, "No buddy that choose M$ products gets fire."

Followed by threatening to sue,
Followed by funding a 3rd party to sue.
Followed by sewing.

Their other business plan is stealing source code from successful companies by having plants that send them the code and then hide the fact that they have it until they get caught.

Once they get caught and maybe loose the just keep appealing until the other company goes bankrupt.

If that doesn't work announce vapor ware that is "much better than what brand x is" along with "we stopped using their code last version and this version no longer contains that code."

Follow by blocking distribution channels for 3rd party vendors.

Anything not sound familiar? All of it does? Then you either don't have your head in the sand or you've been working at M$ long enough to know the real business plan.