IBM/Apple Deal?

[sord]

As of today, both the inventor of the PC and the inventor of the PC clone business are gone. What does that say about its future?

People die, get old, or wish to move on to different things in life?

 

[shabbasuraj]

Well the waiting is over - they are now owned by Chinese PC maker Lenovo.

More info...

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...596&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154

 

[salmon]

Interesting... Wouldn't Microsoft be better off focusing primarily in applications? I mean, seriously, even though Windows is their cash cow, maybe they could give away some of their market share. We are now beginning to understand that a 90+% OS share is completely unsustainable! Think about it: If OS X is not a primary target of malware because it only has a 5 or 6% installed base, wouldn't Apple be in serious trouble if they had a much bigger share, say, 90+% just like Microsoft?? Apple has some monopolistic tendencies, just like M$ (iPod + iTunes, anyone?), the only difference here is that they're (still) doing things right. But comparing OSes and consumer electronics is like... comparing apples to oranges. Still, if you take those tendencies into account, if Apple was the dominant player in the OS market (highly unlikely, due to their close hardware/OS system), they wouldn't be any nicer then Microsoft (or maybe not, that Palladium stuff doesn't smell too good, but anyway...).

They would be better off focusing on applications, except for one small problem - they suck at it. Think about every Microsoft app you've ever used, and then make a list of all the ones you've liked using. Now that you're down to 3 or 4, how many of them were originally built by someone else? My list is currently SQL Server and Visio, both of which they bought from others. The ONLY reason Microsoft is as pervasive as they are is that they've been ruthless about taking away consumers choice, not because they can built good software.

Microsoft could take some revolutionary moves, like making Office for Linux or something... That would absolutely kill a lot of Windows' share, but hey, they would be a "cool" company and some of their troubles would go away. AND they would still have Office and other software titles as revenue sources.

I disagree - that won't help them be cool, because MS Office is a POS (I've never used the Mac version, though). I'm a developer, and I'm often trying to manipulate data that's stored in those bloody proprietary files, and it's difficult.

MS Word is an OK (but not great) tool for writing simple letters, resumes and faxes, but it is WAY overused in the world for documentation and technical writing. So much so that statistics say (don't know source off the top of my head, one of the CMS providers) that over 50% of someone's time using it is wasted messing around with trivial things. Then try to use some of their version control, reviewing features, etc - they all SUCK. Powerpoint is OK, MS Access is one of the most irritating things I've ever used, Excel's OK, but none of it makes my work easier, I just fight with it most of the time until I cobble together something that is functional.

Let me put it this way: I'd never consider buying a version of Windows; yet, I can hardly wait for Tiger to be released to shell out some cash to buy it. When products are well designed, people will buy them (and sometimes even if they aren't the best value, like the iPod mini, which also relies on "coolness" besides of quality).

That's my main criteria for something. Anytime I've bought ANYTHING and tried to save a few bucks, I end up getting pissed of at the cheaper piece of crap I bought, get rid of it and buy the one I wanted in the first place. Now I simply wait until I can afford to get the one I want, and if I can't, I don't get it. It's been much more efficient financially, and made me happier.

But, you know, expecting Office to be worth buying (oh, Apple, bring up AppleWorks X already! Or... Org, bring up a decent OS X version of OpenOffice already!) would be like expecting Microsoft to turn into an Apple-like company, which is absouletely NOT going to happen (Microsoft developing cool, good quality products? No way!!).

I thought for sure that Apple would latch onto OpenOffice, and tweak a fantastic version for OS X, especially after releasing Keynote. I'm still waiting though.

However, I definitely wouldn't like to see IBM buying Apple, IMHO. Their respective corporate cultures seem to be too different from each other, and if Apple's "culture" was lost, many, MANY people (including myself) would be very unhappy and disappointed with the tech world.

Agreed, IBM is a good company in a lot of ways, but they ain't Apple. I have generally found most of IBM's products technically sound but lacking greatly in usability. I can't see them merging or IBM buying out Apple, it would be a ruin for both, methinks.

What I can see happening is Apple continuing to make moves to move into business, and IBM becoming their entry point into the enterprise. An office suite that eliminates their dependence on Microsoft, and a line of business workstations. iMacs and eMacs are nice, but their technology and feature sets are geared towards consumers and media people, not office workstations. Office workstations typically don't need firewire and Superdrives, these features just are a waste of money for business.

They certainly have the best OS out there, no one else coming close IMO.

Do I want to see Apple with a 90% market share? Hell no! I want to see a nicely balanced market, with OS X, Windows and various Linux desktop distros having significant market shares, and all having completely open interfaces and file formats. Then we can see real competition and innovation in the market, where the customer is the one that benefits the most.

 

[~Shard~]

I wonder if there will be any branding considerations or issues as a result of IBM selling off this division. IBM is the third strongest brand in the world.

 

[sunilraman]

IBM ports all of their middleware and services to OS X Server. They start pushing the hell out of Mac OS X Server and then they tell corporate clients "you know you can also run Word and Excel on this same OS".

Mr. Corporate IT guys says, "what? You need Windows for Excel". Mr. IBM suit pulls out a shiny new PowerBook running Word right alongside Websphere and some Shell scripts. IT guy falls over.

Who profits? IBM just sold a bunch of G5 chips and services. Apple just sold a bunch of Macs and Xserves. Microsoft gets Office licenses and a few VirtualPC licenses. Intel gets nothing.

In four years I'm sitting in my office typing on a PowerBook, not a ThinkPad T23.

Okay, this is hands down the best vision I have ever seen on how Apple gets into that nasty bulls**t corportate IT world. And IBM can definitely win too. Somebody get Steve and whats-his-name-IBM-dude on the phone right now. Seriously

I can almost smell the fresh plastic in 2009 as I pull out my ThinkBook or PowerPad... Then a call comes in on the BatPhone... To the BatMobile!! oops getting totally off track here

PS....If you haven't tried the new G5, beg borrow or steal. It's fast. Really fast.

 

[KrysBaz]

lots of interesting points, and who know's what will happen.
If I get a crystal ball for Christmmas I'll try and gage what thee future holds, and then buy as much stock as possible!

The whole PC/Corporate Business market needs a big shake up.

Moving from W2K at work then to OSX at home, and not constantly being frustrated at the lack of performance and stability on the W2K system drives me mad.

A nice OSX IBM box (even a cut down non-iapped version) at work would be sweet.

Perhaps a deal to infiltrate the business world would be good.

Then I wouldn't need to send work home to finish and make pretty.

<-Update->
New Patch realesed at work due to virus attack !
How nice to get an extra 10 min break in the afternoon

 

[AidenShaw]

Moving from W2K at work then to OSX at home, and not constantly being frustrated at the lack of performance and stability on the W2K system drives me mad.

Remember that the "2" in W2K means the year 2000 - it's a four year old OS.

Is it on a 4 year old PC as well?

(Comparing the performance of an older PC tied into the company network and file shares to a new standalone G4 or G5 isn't exactly fair - any slowness could be due to an overloaded (or just slow) network or slow file servers, not a problem on your client.)

XP has some real improvements in application stability - particularly in keeping a stuck application from hanging all the windows. If you see a window turn white (stop refreshing, and maybe leave tracks of other windows that overlaid it), this means that the app isn't playing fair with the windowing protocols, and XP has temporarily disabled it. On W2K, a similar situation could cause all the windows to hang.

(The X-Window System suffers from the same issue - it's a message-based window system like Windows. If an application stops reading the common message queue, other apps don't get their messages because they're stuck waiting for the hung app to read its message. The reason for the common queue is to be able to respond to mouse clicks and keyboard input in the order that the user clicked or typed - otherwise things could be confusing when the wrong window pops up or typing is directed to the wrong place.)

Neither W2K nor XP should be blue-screening - if you see that you have a hardware problem, or bad drivers.
.

 

[JJTiger1]

I'm still waiting.

Well the waiting is over - they are now owned by Chinese PC maker Lenovo.

I've got the Bloomberg news channel running. I want to see this IBM deal on the TV.

... if it's on the TV news, it has to be real.

 

[wdlove]

This sale by IBM to Lenovo is just the beginning of the shake up in the PC market. If true we are suppose to loose 2 of the current PC makers by 2007.

 

[MadMacs44]

Put your listening hats on here!

No way do we want Big Brother to Own Apple!!! That would be a bad bad thing! What we have here in the Mac World is Quality Machines, not quantity garbage. Do we want them to invest in Apple sure you bet! But not buy buying Apple, but by pouring dollars into R&D for better Apple Products etc.

Think about it, why would IBM, which as of last night did sell its PC divisions for like a billion and a half, buy into another computer company just to sell PC's??? They are intersted in markets with higher margins such as chips and software etc..

Remember Folks, we dont want "Think Pads" we want "Think Different"! Thats what makes Apple stand out from the rest!!! Who cares if Apple is number one!If that happens, it will just cheapen the product! What fun would that be if everyone had a Mac? I mean we wouldnt have know one to pick on and niether would they

 

[KrysBaz]

Remember that the "2" in W2K means the year 2000 - it's a four year old OS.

Is it on a 4 year old PC as well?

No the PC is 9 months old, my main work machine at home is a rev A 12.1 PB, playing the GHz Game, my PC work Station is slightly faster (1Ghz comp to 867Mhz)

(Comparing the performance of an older PC tied into the company network and file shares to a new standalone G4 or G5 isn't exactly fair - any slowness could be due to an overloaded (or just slow) network or slow file servers, not a problem on your client.)

Yes the network is as slow as a pig, but you can't blame the speed and application hangs purley on that. I may not be the most technically minded, and able to tell exactly what should be able to run, but when I'm working at home I'm used to having Word,Excell Powerpoint and Safari (Usually iTunes, mail and AIM&MSMessenger to) running, multiple documents, and swithcing and dragging and dropping easily between the apps. This is nearly impossible when at work, and takes 3-4 times than at home, not good when I have very tight deaflines,and need to do helpdesk support too.

Anyway that aside,this is straying off topic, and I'm just having a rant about work. (been one of those days)

So back to the to the thread...

Personally I'm not sure if the Apple IBM deal would be a practical solution at least in the short term, corporate cultures and Branding would play a large part in how the company /partnership would be viewed by the public.


I'm sure as many Macphiles would be as upset as IBMpeeps would be happy with closer co-operation.

I'll just wait with intrest and see what happens......



Now back to my game and Knight Rider

 

[Lancetx]

It Ain't Happening...

Oh well, on to the next half baked rumor...

Link