Read/Write Web wonders how Apple can win the PC battle
One phrase that sums up the American spirit is, 'If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?' While this phrase mistakenly equates intelligence with business acumen, it is still a powerful statement that seems to resonate with people. This phrase was brought to my mind thanks to this post over on Read/Write Web, which is a great blog all about webapps and the like, dealing with Apple's market-share. The thesis of the post seems to be, 'if Macs are so great, why isn't everyone using them?' It is true the post isn't as combative as that turn of phrase might suggest, but nonetheless it is a good summary of the post's main thrust.
The first half of the post deals with the rise of Apple, the cool new hardware and the software that powers it, not to mention the powerhouse that is the iPod. Given these data points, and the fact that Apple's market-share is rising, is it possible to assume that Apple will win the PC battle?
Read/Write lists some ways they think Apple will be able to win this battle. They trot out the old chestnut that Macs are more expensive than PCs. It is true you can get a PC for less dough than you can a Mac but that is really comparing Apples to cheap, crappy Oranges. It has been well established that a PC with the same feature set of a Mac will cost about the same, or slightly more...
The second R/W suggestion for Apple is make tech support free (or at least, cheaper). While I'm all for that (hey, who doesn't like to save money?), I don't think it'll really be a boon to Apple's numbers. The Genius Bar is free (though crowded) and I imagine it must cost Apple a pretty penny to keep going. AppleCare is pricey because support, in general, ain't cheap. You need call-centers, knowledgeable people, and an infrastructure to support all that. Lowered prices on AppleCare would mean more folks would sign up for it, which would mean Apple would need to invest more money into the infrastructure, which itself isn't bringing in as much money as it once did. I'm no MBA, but that doesn't seem like a good business strategy to me.
How do I think Apple can win the PC battle? They can't, but it doesn't matter. Why? There are two big reasons: the enterprise market and the embedded market. Fortune 500 companies buy lots and lots of computers and most of them are running Windows. As the R/W post points out switching to the Mac wholesale would be prohibitively expensive (as would switching to any other operating system for that matter, including newer versions of Windows! That's why most companies tend not to upgrade Windows but rather buy a new machine with the most recent version of Windows on it. It is cheaper). The embedded market is even more difficult to crack. Lots of cash registers, ATM machines, and other utility devices run specialized versions of Windows. I can't imagine Apple getting into the cash register business (but I bet it would be a really nice cash register), so I think Windows dominance in that market is pretty secure. Steve Jobs, and by extension Apple, is highly focused. Microsoft has lots of more money and resources to go off and enter different markets. Apple is a smaller company and must pick and choose its territory carefully.
Apple has always been a consumer company, and they are making a killing by selling great consumer devices (Macs, iPods, AppleTV, and iPhones) powered by industrial grade software with a delicious candycoating (OS X). You don't have to be number 1 to be incredibly successful, a statement that Apple and many other 'luxury brands' prove time and time again.