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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Monday, June 07, 2004

Linux vs. Apple: An Uncomfortable Battle

TechNewsWorld: "The Linux threat to Microsoft has, despite all of the hype, failed to make much of a dent in Microsoft's financial performance. But while we were watching for that impact, Sun was all but gutted. Think back that, with all of the rhetoric surrounding the death of Microsoft, even Sun was focusing on Microsoft and actually helping create a future in which Sun would not exist. The company even went so far as to fund OpenOffice, which further supported the belief that Linux is the future and that proprietary companies like Sun are the extinct past. The reason Linux took Sun out so easily is that it attacked Sun where it was the most vulnerable: in the hardware. Linux has the advantage that Microsoft enjoys in that it uses low-cost commodity hardware. Both Red Hat and Novell are sending messages that they are designing new user interfaces based on the Mac OS. While their stated target is Microsoft, the collateral damage from the developments, much like it was with Sun, will probably be Apple. Apple has been subsidizing its relatively expensive hardware with software, so the cost disadvantage that Sun enjoyed would seem to be dramatically less for Apple. But that might not be the case. While much is said about the success of the Mac OS X , the speculation remains that the majority of Apple's installed base has stayed with its older hardware and has not migrated to the new operating system."

It's not speculation. If you believe Apple's own numbers, only 10 million of the Mac's installed base of 25 million users has switched to Mac OS X.

"Apple could abandon the hardware and shift to software-only strategy but, unlike Microsoft, Apple doesn't have deep penetration into the corporate market. And consumers are far less loyal. While this trend could protect the hardware margins, without branded PC hardware partners Apple would still fail."

[ Posted at 6:36 PM | Permalink ]