Posted on 10/18/2006 6:49:22 PM PDT by Swordmaker
The future success of Apple, Dell and Intel lies with a licensing deal between Steve Jobs' company and the PC maker according to analyst Gartner
Increasing component costs and pressure to cut its prices mean Apple's best bet for long-term success is to quit the hardware business and license the Mac to Dell, analyst firm Gartner claimed on Tuesday.
In a surprisingly ambitious report, called Apple Should License the Mac to Dell, Gartner says Apple should concentrate on what it does best — create software — and make use of Dell's production and distribution infrastructure.
"Apple should leverage its close relationship with Intel and team up with Intel's closest ally, Dell," the report states. "We recognise that this move would surprise and even shock many. We are aware that Steve Jobs cancelled previous Mac licences when he took over at Apple and that he guards the Apple brand zealously."
Up to around 1997, companies including Power Computing were given the rights to license Mac technology from Apple. However, when Jobs returned to the company, he attempted at first to renegotiate the licences but eventually opted to cancel them.
Apple increased its share of the PC market to around 4.6 percent in July this year, according to analyst figures.
Gartner claims that with the right partners, distribution channels and a more affordable price, computers running the Mac OS could eventually account for 20 percent of the total PC market.
According to IDC, Apple's sales, while still smaller than its major competitors, grew by double digits in the second quarter of this year. IDC attributed the growth to a successful transition to Intel chips.
According to Apple's third-quarter results — released in July this year — Mac sales were up 12 percent compared with last year, during what was considered a poor quarter for the PC market. Apple said that 75 percent of all Macs sold during the period used Intel's chips.
However, Apple will not be able to substantially increase this growth on its own because of increasing pricing pressure, Gartner warns.
Apple's margins for its Mac business, currently around 40 percent, are only sustainable because component makers such as Intel choose to prop up the business, Gartner claimed.
Given that HP has forced Intel to offer it comparable pricing to Dell, Intel is unlikely to continue to subsidise Apple, the analyst argues. "As a result of permanently changed market conditions, Intel has been forced to restructure and, in our opinion, cannot go on supporting Apple (or any other customer) indefinitely."
Whether Apple's Steve Jobs would sanction any of the suggestions made by Gartner is hard to gauge. However, comments made by the Apple chief executive in April this year suggest that he is not unduly worried by his company's limited share of the PC market.
"One of the nice things about having four or five percent market share is you don't really care if [the PC] market is down," said Jobs speaking at Apple's annual shareholder meeting in April.
Pal, the reason people buy Apple products is obviously lost on you. From your postings about a dollar here a dollar there, a millisecond here a millisecond there you appear to be caught up in the mundane. My personal reason for buying Apple products is quality and design. I think it is admirable to see a company take such pride in what they are doing, and quite frankly it shows in their products.
Echo Talon reminds me of a kid who is repeatedly bad because he enjoys the spankings.
isn't Apple's motto "think different" thats seems to be lost in this crowd. :D you all have been brainwashed. :) iMac this iLife that iMovie the other thing... Jobs cares about ME, ME, ME... LOL
I have none of those and don't care for Jobs, although he is a smart business man for a liberal. I own Macs and use PCs and MS in business. I much prefer the Macs.
However, I would not read one article or send one post critical of MS or PCs just for the sake of blasting them. Your obsession with the Mac threads borders on the juvenile, IMO.
take a look at the IE7 threads, someone has to give them heck.
:) if not me then who?
"That's likely because Dell, Intel and Microsoft pay Gartner $1 million each per year in fees and Apple pays $500K. "
Bingo.
I have never seen or read an IE7 thread as I don't use it and have no interest in learning about it.
I was at the Gartner conference. They are basically telling their clients to forget upgrading to Vista anytime soon -- er, but keep paying us and we will tell you when.
I see the pizza delivery boy is not on his runs tonight. Can you imagine the POS car he drives? Chevy engine, ford tranny, dodge seats on a hudson frame and buick body. Farm tractor seats. Kit-itis.
Why don't you do something useful? You don't like Macs. We all know that. Now bug off.
:') He wouldn't have changed, according to him, if the PPC had been upgraded as promised. I don't think he'll move to AMD until he gets disenchanted with Intel. Given his childlike attention span, it won't take long. :')
Think he has neon lights under the car as well?
"Think he has neon lights under the car as well?"
That flicker and drag.
We grabbed a pair of 2.4GHz Clovertown samples and tossed them in the system, and to our pleasure, they worked just fine. Our samples used a 1066MHz FSB, although we're expecting the final chip to use a 1333MHz FSB, but the most important part of the test is that all 8 cores were detected and functional.
Jobs would have to lay off a lot of workers to do this. I do not know how many American workers would be involved or if the
foreign workers are a concern for him.
Cool post!
Same article! LOL.. I can be done, just a pain in arse!
look at post 37.. :\
I had the opportunity to begin and interviewing process with them and turned it down. And they're not the only gang in that business.
They demand money from technology companies, to promote them. And sometimes, if they don't pay up, negative things are written up about them.
Take a look!
the thread is pretty long he also has some test animations up
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