Silly Market People
Posted by TFG on April 5th, 2006
WSJ.com – How About Those Apples?
9:22 a.m.: Apple Computer looks set to rally today, after the PC maker unveiled Boot Camp, a public beta software application that allows Mac computers that use Intel processors to run Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. The stock was among the most active issues on Inet, and it was up 4% in pre-market action. The software is available for download beginning today, and will be a feature in the company’s next release of its Mac operating system. The software could boost sales of the Mac, which has already seen strong growth in the last year. Apple shipped 38% more Macs in the fiscal year ended Sept. 24, 2005 than the prior year, said analysts at ThinkEquity Partners, in a recent comment — and shipments were up 20% in the last three months of 2005. Intel and Microsoft were little-changed in pre-market activity.
Seems like the trend towards commoditizing the hardware that allows the world’s biggest software company’s operating system to run on it, and making it easier to do so, would be a net negative. Apparently not. This tells me the market thinks the Apple hardware is what drives Apple. If so, I’m a complete idiot, because I personally would never spend the big bucks an Apple Macintosh so I could run XP.
Funny, too, that the amazing OS-X still isn’t available for generic Intel processors. That I’ve seen, anways. Vendor lock-in used to be bad.
UPDATE: John Weidner, reporting in from the front lines: But lots of people might pay happily to be able to run OS-X, PLUS that one Windows program they need for something-or-other. That’ll be fun — boot up Mac, run-run-process-process-surf-surf, shut down, boot up XP, take care of that one snippet, shut down, boot up OS-X, find out you effed up the XP thingamajig, shut down, boot up XP… Yeah, that’ll fly.
Really, truly, now — are that many indispensible XP-only programs? I’m struggling to envision that. Sounds kind of like a dirty little Macintosh secret.
(JK)
April 5th, 2006 at 10:16 am
Of course not. But lots of people might pay happily to be able to run OS-X, PLUS that one Windows program they need for something-or-other. (Which you could have done in the past, using Virtual PC, but most of us are not to crazy about running applications in emulation.)
I think what drives Apple is the combination of hardware and software that are made for each other, and mostly “just work.” YOU don’t need that, but you are a pro.
The ordinary user should seriously consider it. For them, Wintel hardware is only cheap if they don’t count the value of their time.
April 5th, 2006 at 11:04 am
I’m sure that you, John, remember the Apple 1984-style commercial run during the Super Bowl. It was about the soul-crushing nature of hardware and software that were made for each other (not to mention the horrific expense). That’s what I’ve always found humorous about the Apple/Jobs PR machine and the people who love them. Yall are all now making the same argument for, that you all made against. There’s probably a parable there about some big wheel turning in the cosmos.
I’m not Apple-bashing, just observing. I really want OS-X to run on any box. That’s their strength, not their hardware.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
I agree that a dual-boot solution is rather inelegant; I’d much prefer to be able to run both OSes simultaneously.
Whether you agree with the strategy or not, Apple added $5 billion to its market cap today after the announcement, and most stock analysts are predicting a 40-50% increase in Apple’s stock over the next year. A risk-taker with some spare change might be a happy camper in 2007, regardless of what flavor computer he fancies.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Oh, and as far as “indispensible” Windows-only programs…I don’t know of any, although I’d really love to be able to run MS Access. Not that it’s superior to FileMaker Pro, but there’s that whole compatibility thing, you know.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Whether you agree with the strategy or not, Apple added $5 billion to its market cap today after the announcement, and most stock analysts are predicting a 40-50% increase in Apple’s stock over the next year.
That’s why I said I’m an idiot…
April 5th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Eric, There are no indispensible Windows programs for the general market, but almost any niche market has them.
For instance if I invested in computer-controlled woodworking machinery for my business, I’d have to have Windows. And my wife’s law office depends on a Windows time-keeping program. Timeslips, that does not seem to have any good Mac equivalent…
April 6th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
There are humungous numbers of little bits of custom code developed for PC environments throughout businesses large and small across the country. Even with the impending grief of having to upgrade to Vista in the next year or so, rest assured that my business is not chucking it all so we can have Macs instead.