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There was a brief moment in the 90's before Jobs returned when Apple allowed MacOS to be licensed to third party system integrators. Naturally, the companies th
by thereddaikon 4y ago
There was a brief moment in the 90's before Jobs returned when Apple allowed MacOS to be licensed to third party system integrators. Naturally, the companies that popped up to sell generic Macs were massively under cutting Apple. Their prices have never been something that could stand up to direct competition.
- kube-system 4y agoHad they continued down that road, Apple would probably be as successful today as IBM's PC division.
- harvey9 4y agoSure but part of their success is being a lifestyle brand. A lot of people buy Apple for that. The interesting question here is around the productivity value of a 52k computer versus something at 5k or less, since almost nobody is dropping 52k on a computer just to fit in with the cool kids.
- kube-system 4y agoFor a video editor in an Apple shop who makes hundreds of thousands more by getting a video out a few hours faster, spending 50k do to do that makes sense. Nobody buys a fully loaded Mac Pro to fit in at the lunch table.
- thereddaikon 4y agoLenovo seems to be doing alright. But Apple has one big difference from IBM, they control the software side. So allowing generic Macs wouldn't turn them in to IBM. It would turn them in to Microsoft.
- kube-system 4y agoLenovo would have been successful with or without.
- JohnTHaller 4y agoThey were both massively undercutting and outperforming Apple, which Apple hadn't anticipated. They were expecting the clones to compete just for the low end.