Apple's edge: fewer choices

TalkBack 7 of 44:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

America is not that 97% market share

Let me ad to whatever Moeller answers to your question:

It's quite known to people who take the time to read about
computer history that unlike Apple, Microsoft decided to license
their OS (Windows) many years ago. This means that any
computer company (Dell, Compaq, Gateway) can build systems
and install Windows in it. Apple decided not to license Mac OS,
which most people consider a drastic mistake by them. This is
why if you want to use Mac OS you have to buy a computer from
Apple. No other computer manufacturers can sell their machines
with Mac OS installed from factory except Apple.

A common mistake many people who are ignorant about
computer history will repeatedly do is to believe that Windows
domination of the computer market with 97% of the market
share is because it's better, or safer (as people used to think
until recently). Most people ignore that out of that 97% market
share Windows enjoys, 40% is made by computers made out of
really cheap unmarked components that people buy from some
guy who puts them together in some dirty room in China or
Latin America, or people buy the parts separately and put them
together themselves. These computers are also called "clones" or
"white boxes" and outside of the US these are the only
computers people can really afford to buy because they're just
as cheap as they are bad, and the only OS they can install in
them is Windows. Period. Not because Windows is better, or
safer, or cheaper in the long run, but just because there's no
other choice. This is why they have such a disproportional
market share.

If Apple had licensed Mac OS many years ago to be installed in
any computer just like these cheap "clones", the story would be
very different and they would have at least a 50% market share if
not the majority.

Just imagine this fictitious scenario that you initially presented
but with the rest of the story: say Mac OS and Windows had
started together. Say both were licensed and cost the same, but
as it is in reality today, Mac OS X is years ahead of Windows XP.
You can install any of them in your new hardware whether it's a
beautiful tower from Dell or a white plastic box from Jose in
Tijuana. Do you think people would still have chosen an inferior
OS under these circumstances? I don't think so.

Fortunately two groups are rapidly growing: the number of angry
Windows users, and the number of options for people who want
to dump unsafe software (e.g.: Internet Explorer). This is why the
Brazilian government (among others) have decided to slowly
switch their whole computer systems to Linux and now the Thai
government is starting a project to consider switching their
whole system to Mac OS X.

Posted by: sergio@...   Posted on: 10/18/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Evaluating Price/Performance of VMware ESX Server on Dell PowerEdge Servers Dell This paper examines the price/performance advantage that enterprises can ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now