Is Dell in Apple's Sights?


Does Apple really have Dell as its target, as it seals the deal with Intel? That's the position the Motley Fool has taken.

The evidence? Apple's real enemy is not Microsoft. It's that low-rent mail-order company: Dell. After all, Microsoft, IBM (for now) and, now, Intel, are Apple partners. HP sells iPods. Who's left? Mikey Dell, that's who.

In a brave piece of speculation, Motley Fool deals with three myths which have developed over the past few days. These are (1) Mac Clones; (2) Macs Will Be Cheaper; and (3) an Apple-AMD hook-up.

On point 1, Motley says Apple isn't sending in the clones. Mac OS X licensing isn't at all likely, and what Jobs wants to do is sell lots and lots of Macs. End of story.

On to point 2: Macs won't be significantly cheaper. Apple lives on big gross margins, and competing at the fast-food end of the PC chain isn't where it wants to live. And, despite the gross margins, Apple's actual profitability has been "excruciatingly thing for years", meaning they pay pennies in the dollar.

# 3: Don't expect an 'Athlon64 Inside' sticker on a Mac anytime soon. Apart from which, Intel would be very upset.

Analysis: We agree with all of them, but there's one thing that hasn't got a lot of press in the last week: Apple's 64-but future. After all, the much-touted 64-bit G5s just got a 64-bit OS. What 64-bit future does Intel have to offer the Mac desktop user?