Apple Inc (AAPL)

[Tex]

re Comparison Shopping

That article is sure to get a bunch of links. The fact it positions Apple as the bargain and the performance king will be worth seeing quoted.

Mac: In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple’s computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didn’t come in our user ratings [....] Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.

When I first booted MacOS X -- that is, v10.0 -- it was sooo sloooooow that to MacOS X described as a speed champ so many years later is interesting, to say the least.

Or is this just an indictment against Vista?

I think it's interesting, from an ease-of-migration standpoint, to read:
That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot—and still save $100.

If this is an experience that's easy to come by, then (a) MSFT's per-seat license revenue will increase because it'll be selling retail rather than OEM to bargain shoppers, and (b) there's little reason to wonder at Apple's share gain rate, as it's based firmly in traditional price comparison. Has Apple finally reached a unit volume at which it can build the OS and invest reasonably in design and still compete viciously on price? Chalk it up to what you will (supply chain management? bulk component contracts? just don't say loss-leaders!), Apple has apparently made itself a price competitor (in some segments, anyway). As Apple's volume grows, the savings it realizes in not shipping MSFT's OS should be a real boon to the bottom line.

Anyone know what a license of Windows Mobile costs? I'm thinking back to my link on MSFT's officer saying MSFT had no fear of competitors because it sold more licenses in some recently-quoted period. I see a link that suggests the deployment runtime might be between $3 (in lots of 1000) and $16, which leaves MSFT needing a ton of units to compete with Apple's profit on iPod Touch, iPhone, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/products/windowsce/default.mspx

On the other hand, XP Embedded (apparently suitable for multifunction printers?) is $90 per shipping unit. Vista OEM (according to ArsTechnica) runs from $99 to $199 per seat. Well, maybe small OEMs, anyway.

Given that Apple can sell a machine for a price that lets folks buy Vista while remaining $100 ahead, I think Apple's principle advantage isn't the lack of a MSFT license, though of course that doesn't hurt. I'm curious whether anyone has thoughts on whether, perhaps, the comparison prices were bad? Is Apple really underselling Gateway by more than the cost of a retail Vista license?

Verrrry interesting. In 2000, folks would have sworn the day would never come. Has it?

Take care,
--Tex.