Apple, Put Your Chips On The Table

There was news from Apple recently, but not about them moving to Intel chips. Lost in the buzz of this “surprise leak” you might have missed the other announcement - that Apple would begin manufacturing Steve Jobs “pull my string” action figures. Just pull the string, and he says “IBM ARE BOZOS!”

No one can say for sure whether Apple’s intent is really moving to Intel chips, or this is just a case of a good PR slap. Apple still disapproves of the IBM boys, who are busier playing with gaming consoles than with Apple. In the past, IBM was late delivering chips that set Apple’s delivery schedule back for the iMac G5 release.

One thing we know for sure. True or false, an obvious message was sent by Apple to IBM for everyone to hear. Apple could move to Intel chips if IBM doesn’t get a move on.

Of course, Mr. Jobs has never had a problem with wanting to kick IBM’s big blue butt around the computer business. Since the early days of Apple, Mr. Jobs viewed IBM and its workers as old-hat stuffed shirts they were going to put out of business. Oh, but that arrogant claim (and a false one) was many years ago, you say? True. Being older and wiser, Jobs now uses his PR machine instead to blast IBM publicly.

So what happens if Apple does fire IBM and hire Intel? Send in the clones? No point in being giddy over new clones in the Jobs era. In the world according to Jobs, that would reduce Apple’s profit. Well, darn it … now that I think about it…he’s right! It would diminish Apple’s profit! Who can disagree!

Maybe that’s because only Apple makes the Mac, and Jobs refuses to lead the company into world-class services, which is where it really belongs. Frankly, Jobs is so hell-bent on being a modern-day industrialist, he refuses to do anything except build products. He gets regular worldly nods for building cool products, but there’s little else driving change at Apple. {Memo to myself: Please remind Steve about that company he’s now pistol whipping, was brilliantly transformed from traditional hardware manufacturer into outstanding global service provider.}

Who is really keeping the Mac market alive?? Surely, not Apple. At the moment, they’re busy advertising iPod + iTunes, wowing Wall Street with market share numbers, and maybe you’re a happy shareholder. Well, kudos to Steve. He certainly has a pulse on what people want, but what about the future of the Mac? It’s clear that Mac users are keeping the Mac alive a well (aka demand). Ultimately, only Mac users can change the future of the Mac. What is so wonderful about being in a niche market, like BMW? That’s a tired excuse, and we’re keeping the Mac from expanding. Who can deny if the Macs ruled the market, we would see mega-sized software development for Tiger? And frankly, I don’t care what the Mac looks like as long as it’s an Apple’s OS I’m using.

Here’s an example of how the market can be pushed. When we first advertised on PriceGrabber, the other resellers were only setting prices a few dollars below retail. We advertised too, and dropped our prices intentionally by literally hundreds of dollars well below M.A.P. (Minimum Advertised Price). We got tons of Mac sales, and just the sheer volume turned a profit. My point is not that we’re cleaver or dumb by giving profit away (FYI, our service business is our real money maker). The point is we pushed the market in a particular direction that Mac users wanted. Macs were now costing less, and believe me - people didn’t stop buying them. This caused my phone to ring off the hook, with yet another flunky from Apple demanding we stop going below M.A.P. My answer was “you can compete if you want to.”

Today in the PriceGrabber wars, even Apple advertises, though at full retail prices which puts them at the bottom of the list. They’re also selling the Mac Mini – the lowest priced Mac ever, that isn’t worth selling by any Reseller. Apple clearly knows when and where it’s losing Mac sales, and would fire all the Apple Resellers if it were an easy move.

Mac users wield a market power that Apple cannot hope to match. If every Mac user began to build, buy and sell clones, eventually you would see Apple start to build clones. Apple is going to try to protect Mac sales at any cost, because building stuff is their only big money strategy. The iPod sales alone are not enough to carry Apple’s enormous overhead plus yield a profit.

Jobs may have killed the clones, but, clones can be built by the average handy consumer now, and Apple hiring Intel would make it much easier. Heck, we may even build clones to sell. Who doesn’t want a G5 DP 2.7GHz box running Tiger that only costs $350? Don’t like the bare grey metal box? Put a few Apple stickers on it, or put it behind your desk.

One thing I’ve discovered in the last decade. Apple keeps close tabs on the market it only thinks it owns