Macopinion

Apple Windows

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

I've read a lot of nutty things written about Apple, but this silly blog post from a guy named Kingsley-Hughes takes the booby prize. The author posits that seeing that Apple's doing so well financially now, what the company needs to do to "get to the next level" is start manufacturing Windows-based PCs.

Wow. This is wrong on so many levels I hardly know where to begin.

So let's start with the obvious fact that there's no bigger bonehead move in business than to change the tactics that have made you successful. Apple is succeeding because they are not a regular PC maker, not in spite of it.

Apple's speciality is making the whole widget: hardware and software that work together for a seamless, trouble-free user experience. Apple did this with the Mac, again with the iPod, and is now doing it with the iPhone.

The main reason the Windows environment sucks is because there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Microsoft tries to please everyone and winds up pleasing none. The many manufacturers all want to do their own thing and the resulting mess is a kludge of epic proportions. Apple should jump into that cesspool?

Another even bigger reason Apple has no interest in the Windows market is that Windows PCs are a commodity. The vast majority are little more than dumb terminals, sold as either workstations for office drones or as stripped-down low budget PCs at Wal-Mart. Except for a few niche markets like high-end gaming or CAD work, most PCs are sold to the budget-conscious.

Apple targets a different market: namely people who understand value and are willing to pay a premium for a superior product. This is why iPods outsell inferior but cheaper counterparts with more features, and exactly why Mac OS X is gaining such momentum against the crapfest that is Windows. Apple selling a PC with Windows on it wouldn't be a superior solution, would it. It'd be like BMW trying to compete with Hyundai.

While the Windows PC makers are fighting it out with penny margins, Apple's raking in the dough with profits of 30% or more. This extra profit isn't just greed, however. It's useful. While other guys trim off including a copy of the OS on disc with your new computer (a 49 cent saving), Apple has the ability of being profitable enough to focus on important consumer details and luxuries.

Just look at the amount of money the various computer makers make. Apple, despite selling a fraction of the computers of the Dells and HPs of the world, makes more or comparable amounts of money. The logic of idiots like Kingsley-Hughes is that if Apple sold Windows machines it would sell even more and make even more money -- except that doesn't wash because there's no way Apple could make the same kind of money selling also-ran computers. Apple can make money today because they control the OS and the hardware and can use engineering efficiencies to ensure an excellent profit. If Apple merely made a PC, they'd be just like every other PC maker, assembling components and shaving price down to pennies.

So not only would Apple have nothing to distinguish itself (Apple visual design wouldn't be nearly as compelling without a proper OS to take advantage of the hardware), but Apple would be making zero profit while competing against a slew of nearly identical products! Insanity.

Kingsley-Hughes also talks about not being convinced that the "iPod halo" really sells Macs. His logic is that you don't buy a Sony computer because you like your Sony TV, so would an iPod encourage you to buy a Mac?

I would argue that maybe that was true in the past when TVs were mere picture tubes and little separated one from another, but TVs of today and the future are complex, interactive electronic devices. As such, if you find one that fits your style (i.e. it's actually usable), you might well be interested other products from that same manufacturer.

But the "iPod halo" isn't about iPods -- it's really the "Apple halo." Remember the dark days just a few years ago when Apple was "beleagured" and "doomed?" No one was interested in switching to a Mac back then. But the iPod has done two things: it's made Apple the darling of Wall Street and turned Apple into the hottest tech company in the world, which takes a lot of the fear of buying Apple products away. It's also brought iPod lovers into Apple Stores where they are exposed to Macs for the first time. It's those two things that sell Macs, not iPods' magical ability to inspire people.

Kingsley-Hughes goes on with the ridiculousness with this hilarity:

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 when is Mac OS a tax? For Windows it is -- the manufacturers have to pay for every license and they pass that on to the customer. But it costs Apple the same to make Mac OS X whether they have 50 customers or 50 million: it's just a cost of doing business. There is no added fee. Apple saves nothing by not including it, and bundling Windows would actually cost Apple additional money!

Which brings up the most convincing reason yet why Apple will never sell Windows PCs: according to the draconian contracts Microsoft gets computer makers to sign, they pay Microsoft for every PC they sell, even if it doesn't have Windows installed. This is a key reason few makers want to sell Linux PCs: they have to charge for Windows anyway yet the customer expects a discount since they are getting a "free" OS.

So if Apple was to bundle Windows with some of their Macs, they'd have to sign the same contract... and be required to pay for a Windows license for every one of the millions of non-Window Macintoshes sold!

Ridiculous, of course. Yet if Apple didn't sign the contract, they wouldn't get OEM pricing on Windows. Which would mean Windows would cost about what it does in retail stores. In that case, why not just let the customer buy and install their own copy of Windows if that's what they want? Oh wait -- that's exactly what Apple does now!

macopinion@designwrite.com