Apple Considering a Break-Up?

rlthomps-1 writes "Despite Apple's recent sucesses with the iTunes music store and the latest round of PowerBooks, TheDeal.com has an analysis of the options that Apple investors might force the company to take, including a breakup into separate hardware and software companies, a merger with both Universal and Pixar, or a leveraged buyout by private investors. Their analysis points to Palm as a case study for a successful breakup of a company that made both operating systems and hardware in a competitive market. Could separate Apple hardware and software companies revitalize the brand and challenge Microsoft's monopoly?" He forgot to call Apple "beleaguered;" however, he did say their decades-old position is "untenable."

Comments

Nothing new here

[grouchomarxist]

There is nothing new in this article that hasn't been said before and argued to death. This will never happen under Jobs' reign, as this is exactly what he reversed after he returned to Apple.

Some points:

There is still no sign that non-tech people using PCs will switch to an Apple-built OS, especially not in the numbers that would justify the port.* (Note that PC users currently aren't switching to other OSes in big numbers. Remember how Sun was considering cancelling Solaris for Intel?)

The jury is still out on Palm Source. It is far too early to consider it a success.

There is no sign that Apple shareholders are particularly discontented.

*Yes, we all know that the port exists. The problem is the cost of maintaing the port as a consumer product (esp. all those drivers).