Apple + Dell
Posted on March 14, 2007
About a year ago we had the chance to hear from Michael Dell. He didn’t say much of interest at the time but one comment really stuck in my head. He said “I’d sure like to be selling systems based on OS X.”
Most of the current commentary around Dell centers on Linux and Vista. However now that Michael is back in charge he is clearly in a position to at least have a conversation with Steve Jobs and Apple about the potential for Dell to do something with Apple.
It’s hard to picture because Dell has built a company around commodity products and in many ways is almost the opposite of Apple when it comes to the industry. However for all the Apple success they are still just beginning to gain some share in the enterprise.
The attraction for Dell is clear enough, they need to do something to improve their image and restore some quality to their brand name. For Apple the attraction could only be distribution although Apple stores and their own online capabilities seem to be working just fine. Still what a major endorsement it would be for Dell to announce they would be shifting to include OS X-based systems in their plans.
We have just seen some small movement in non-Apple sources for OS X based systems with the Mac Tablet announced during the recent MacWorld.
Even though I can’t see a clear path to a deal of some sort, that comment from Michael Dell continues to haunt me.
If anyone else has an idea of how this could work please share your thoughts.
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You say:
We have just seen some small movement in non-Apple sources for OS X based systems with the Mac Tablet announced during the recent MacWorld.
Except for the fact that that Mac Tablet isn’t really a non-Apple source for an OS X based system. It’s a company that will take an Apple produced laptop and move it into a case they designed. A consumer of the tablet still needs to buy a system from Apple.
It’s exceedingly unlikely that Apple will license their OS to Dell at this point. Apple hardware sales are growing at a nice clip, they’re keeping up with production, and their margins are way above Dell’s. If they license OS X, there’s a risk that the licensee could siphon away some of the higher margin CPU sales, which are a main source of the funding for their OS R&D.