Perhaps it’s time to update the old kids’ favorite of “The Famer In The Dell” to “The Apple In The Dell Catalogue” — or, at least that’s the view of Dell bigwig Michael Dell as expressed to to Fortune Magazine columnist David Kirkpatrick in an e-mail.
The catalyst is Apple’s moving to Intel. Webpronews reports:
While most heads of PC makers cowered from speaking on the record, due to their fear of Microsoft, a certain Texas-based executive spoke out.
“If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers,” said Michael Dell to Fortune Magazine columnist David Kirkpatrick in an e-mail.
Mr. Dell is not the only one who feels that way, contends Mr. Kirkpatrick, but the others don’t wield the same kind of leverage with software titan Bill Gates. Dell Inc. is the world’s leading PC maker, and has already tweaked the Redmond-based software and game console maker by offering the Linux operating system as an option on its machines.
Another excellent point uncovered by Mr. Kirkpatrick is some reasoning behind Apple choosing Intel instead of AMD. Henri Richard, chief of sales and marketing for AMD, summed up the issue neatly.
So will this happen? Will Dell be basically selling Apple? Gear Live predicts FAT CHANCE:
Over Steve Jobs’ dead body, I’m guessing the answer will be. Some of the panicked mac-enthusiasts, however, are blinded by paranoia after the announcement that Intel will be Apple’s new chip supplier starting in 2006, and see a bleak future for the OS. I’m going to put a stop to this here and now, everyone. When are people going to get it through their heads that just because Intel is going to be Apple’s new chip supplier, the world isn’t ending? It’s hardware, the OS is to remain the same. Apple isn’t going to offer MacOS on non-Apple computers, they’ve already said it.
But Dell can dream, can’t he?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.