A funny thing is happening on the way to world PC domination. Many journalists covering the computing industry are writing that fewer PC manufacturers may be a good thing and that Apple has a real chance of becoming a relevant computing platform once again (as if Mac users had to be told that). I've noted some significant news stories covering the computer industry the past several weeks.
It all started when Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq a few weeks ago and someone forgot to tell HP that a merger of the two PC box manufacturers wasn't necessarily a good thing. Stocks dropped and the PC press jumped in with both feet. What I liked most about the whole debacle is what they said about Apple:
"Dell sells online and through catalogues, its primary customers are companies and businessmen," writes Charles Haddad in his Byte of the Apple column. "Although Apple's online sales are growing smartly, the company still sells largely through retail outlets. Its customers are home users, students and artists. And that pits Apple directly against HP and Compaq, which dominate the consumer market for PCs ... If HP and Compaq wed, odds are good that one of these well-known consumer brands in PC retailing will disappear. That thinning of the marketing clutter should help elevate Apple's already lustrous brand name among consumers."
Charles Haddad of Business Week writes how brilliant he thinks Apple's strategy is to open retail outlets across the country.
"Call me crazy, but I agree with the handful of analysts who believe Apple-branded stores are a stroke of genius," said Haddad. "A place like CompUSA is basically a fast-food joint, except the boxes hold microprocessors rather than hamburgers. Sure, the labeling varies from box to box -- Sony, Compaq , whatever -- but what's inside is pretty much same. Not so with a Mac. It has a unique architecture that not only melds the machine to the operating system but enables users to do just about anything -- from playing graphic-intensive games to editing video -- without adding new parts. It never ceases to amaze me the hassles PC users learned to accept. Games that won't work without special cards. Printers that work with one PC and not another."
No truer words have ever been spoken about a computing platform.
Another Internet writer made the following observation recently (sorry, I didn't get the name or attribution):
"Ironically, Apple now appears to be the most stable company in the business (even though Dell is formidable). HP/Compaq's and IBM's ongoing presence in the desktop market is far from certain. Sony has so many other businesses that it's involvement with PC's need not be permanent. I'd think with the Xbox coming out that Sony (maker of PlayStation) would try to prevent people from using Windows since consoles and PC's are starting to converge. Gateway is in trouble, eMachines has been delisted from the NASDAQ, Micron, Acer, Tandy, NEC and Packard Bell are all gone. The dog-eat-dog world of Wintel is getting down to very few uneaten dogs, and the survivors may have pieces missing. Apple is starting to look awfully smart for marching to the beat of a different drummer."
Do you feel the tide may be turning in Apple's favor? You bet! What's more, Apple has a major change in OS strategy coming that will rattle a few cages. It's OS X and its UNIX based, which makes sense (finally) to all those computer geeks out there who could never embrace what they feel was Apple's proprietary operating system/hardware integration (like Microsoft isn't proprietary the way they "integrate" their technology)! For good or for bad, OS X will be embraced by a wider range of computer users simply because of its UNIX underpinnings.
While OS X will move a lot of folks initially to the Mac platform because of the UNIX attraction, in the end it may be cool and superior hardware that seals the deal. Some say there is no way Apple can build enough computers annually to keep up with say, a 10 percent increase in market share. Make no mistake, Apple has learned the hard way how to outsource product and would be able to keep up with nearly any demand the market has to throw at it.
I haven't said a think about the rumored 1.6 GHz G5 chip from Motorola, mainly because there are conflicting stories on the subject. Actually, I think it's believable because of the way it states Motorola got there – by altering the G5's pipeline structure from its initial seven stages to a total of 10. Thus, Motorola is using a type of microchip slight of hand to get the GHz to comparable Intel levels. The current 867 MHz Motorola G4 is roughly equivalent to Intel's 2 GHz P4 chip. That means a G5 running at the same 867 MHz could be at least twice as fast as the current P4, except for the added pipeline structure which could slow it down somewhat.
For more about the rumored G5 chip, see http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/13626.html.
As you can see, it has been a busy couple of weeks in the Mac world. Hang on, it's only going to get better.