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EU think tank says Mac is insignificant
In submitting a new proposal in which bundling of OS's with PC's would be banned, a European think tank took what some may consider a swipe at Apple.
The Globalisation Institute chose to omit Apple from the plan, which would force all consumer PCs to be shipped blank, free of any pre-installed operating system.
Their reasoning?
"We consider the Mac to be a premium, niche product, like a Bang and Olufsen television, which is difficult to justify in the business world outside of the publishing sector."
Because the Mac has such limited appeal, the group claims that it is no real threat to Microsoft's monopoly.
And you know, as much as it may pain some people to admit, they're absolutely right.
Certainly the Mac is influential. OS X has become the absolute standard by which all other user interfaces are judged. The design style pioneered by the Mac and PowerBook machines of the 1990's ushered in the death of the beige box. Even the Mac's ads are influential; notice how many vendors now do frantic, music backed ads in which the computer is spun and twirled like a runway model?
But "influential" and "competitive" are two different things. In Apple's case, they may not even be able to co-exist.
In order to become competitive with Windows in terms of market share, OS X would have to be offered for standard x86 PCs. In doing this, Apple would need to make OS X a product for a number of different vendors on a number of different machines. So, Apple would have to tailor OS X to other companies' standards.
Most of what keeps the Mac such an enjoyable experience is that the hardware and software are so dramatically intertwined. The hardware is optimized to do what the software wants, and vice versa. In order to appeal to a larger PC base, this concept would need to be compromised, something that Steve Jobs has long ruled out, and rightfully so.
In order for the Mac to be the Mac, it must remain a high-end "niche" product tailored for Apple's hardware.
The think tank is right; in a market where functionality is compromised for the sake of pricing and compatibility, Apple can't be considered a legitimate contender.
Much to the delight of Mac owners.
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