
Why Apple Should Kill Off the Mac - mgav
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apple-should-kill-off-the-mac-1434321848
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jaegerpicker
So many things wrong in this article but the base most fundamental issue is
that iOS is in the position it is because of the app store and the stellar
quality of the apps available in it. This is overwhelmingly driven by the
XCode and MacOS X development platform. Microsoft showed during the 90's if
you want to control a platform win the developer market. Sure lots of
developers hated them but they had such a large dedicated group that it drove
the adoption of the platform and made it dominate. Apple is in a similar
position, not in market share but in revenue and profit certainly. They
aggressively invest in their developer community while for the most part
google invests very little. Mac's are key component of that strategy.

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seagoj
Couldn't agree more. The article is half-baked without an understanding for
how much of the developer community relies on macs and how important that is
to Apple. I know I personally don't use a single Apple product other than the
Macbook Pro that is so ingrained into my workflow I can't imagine how I'd work
without it. Doing non-dot net work in Windows is a joke and there is no *nix
supported laptop with enough ease of use to get out of the way so I can get
anything done.

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anorborg
I just want some computer company to focus on power users. I know its a
relatively smaller market, but if someone (Apple, Dell, Lenovo, etc.) focused
on high quality hardware and software that "just worked" for power users and
less focused on the consumer-y features, that would be awesome. Macs have a
great build quality but the OS seems less focused on improving the experience
than assimilating you into their ecosystem (this is true for Microsoft and
Google as well). Every new feature involves creating an account to more
tightly couple you to the respective company. I get this strategy but would
love to see someone concentrating more on the overall experience than locking
me into _their_ world.

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TheCoelacanth
They're supposed to kill off a highly profitable business just so that they
can focus on other things?

That doesn't make any sense. They have like $100 billion dollars in cash
sitting in the bank. If anything, they are focusing on too few things, not too
many.

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gojomo
Clip & save this to your Apple scrapbook, next to articles reporting Michael
Dell's 1997 "shut it down and give the money to shareholders" assessment.

Author Mims casually overlooks how crucial Mac/OSX is to the iOS development
ecosystem, and how important "screens that have more pixels than any PC ever"
are to the leading-edge creators for _every_ other tech and cultural platform.
It's a reminder why tech columnists aren't asked to manage/turn-around tech
companies.

There is one true insight here, though, about where the future mass-market
volume and profits will come from. But let me suggest a diametrically opposite
strategic direction, suggested by the same insight:

It may again be time for Apple to welcome OSX on third-party hardware.

OSX is now a _complement_ to the real cash cows – iOS devices, media stores,
and cloud service – via the OSX development stack and other tight
integrations. Apple could give OSX away for running on _any_ clone PC (or
virtual host), and reap benefits in the markets where it has stronger profit
margins.

Apple would still produce showpiece Macs – the creation/development/knowledge-
work hardware you get when you can afford them – but _most_ OSX users would
simply be throwing OSX onto their econoclones, _because_ it's what works best
with the iOS devices they spend most of their time on.

If you squint, you could see "free OSX anywhere" as a followup step in the
progression that's included ITunes everywhere and free XCode.

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jaegerpicker
This I would support, I have a hard time seeing it in action but two years ago
I'd have a hard time seeing Apple open sourcing there main language and
standard lib (I know Obj-C is open source but no the lib) or them making MacOS
X free. Only issue is driver and driver support. I think it would likely take
too much of Apples time to support all that hard ware and users would
certainly blame them for faulty driver code, they did to Microsoft.

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mgav
I completely disagree with the article's author - just because they don't
"need" the revenue and there are lots of new areas of development on which to
focus is not enough of a reason.

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jaegerpicker
Anyone have a mirror not behind a paywall?

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friendstock
Google "Why apple should kill off the mac" and click on the article link.

