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Daring to Dream: Apple & IBM

Posted by Hemos on from the an-unlikely-marriage dept.

Anonymous writes "The Register has a comment piece of the marriage (speculative) between IBM and Apple. Although wildly speculative, it is not improbable. With IBM already supplying PowerPCs to Apple and Apple having not signed up to IBM's PowerPC consortia, there are hints in this get-together. Apple would also supply IBM with the "lifestyle" side of things. If it does happen, it would be most interesting."

4 of 523 comments (clear)

  1. Except... by winkydink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IBM is a company focused on growing its services biz and Apple has none.

    Apple is primarily a B2C company and IBM is B2B.

    Cultural differences make east vs west like the definition of homogenized

    Steve Jobs and his amazing ego

    Yeah, except for a few trivial things, it could happen. Hey, frogs could grow claws and live in toilets too!

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    1. Re:Except... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      • IBM is a company focused on growing its services biz and Apple has none.
      • # Apple is primarily a B2C company and IBM is B2B.

      Err... isn't that part of the whole idea? Why would you merge or buy a company for something you are already good at? The article is based around the fact that the two companies are a natural complement to each other, and these points you make merely support that hypothesis.

  2. ridiculous by jhwang · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IBM exists to serve corporate customers. Large corporations are not clamoring for apple (I say this as the happy owner of an iBook).

    IBM has to have compelling reasons to think it can make money by convincing either (1) corporations to buy macs or (2) consumers to buy from IBM.

    Let's look at the price tag. Since Apple's current market cap is $25 billion dollars, IBM would have to pay something in that range to purchase Apple.

    To put things in perspective, IBM is expected to receive $1-2 billion from the sale of its existing PC business. IBM has about $10 billion in cash in the bank.

    Does IBM have the money? Only by issuing more debt (IBM has about $22 Billion in debt already) OR by purchasing Apple using IBM stock which would dilute shareholder value.

    Does IBM have the will and/or stupidity to pursue such a deal? NO.

  3. Enterprise/business sales by mveloso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IBM doesn't have to buy Apple to sell Apple products.

    Why would IBM do this? For one reason: customers are asking for it. Maybe IBM is seeing a lot of customers who want to migrate from Windows. IBM can't sell anything to them because IBM doesn't have a lot of other options. Desktop Linux is a joke (sorry). Nobody wants to wait for it to mature.

    If IBM signs on as an Apple reseller, then suddenly there's a viable Windows desktop replacement that IBM can sell.

    What does Apple get? Sales, lots more sales. IBM becomes a large business channel partner, and Apple can keep ignoring the business market (which is pretty much what it's doing now). Apple tries to make enterprise plays, but it really doesn't have the infrastructure or mentality needed to succeed in the enterprise space.

    What are the problems with this scenario? There are a bunch:

    * It's unclear that Apple could meet the increased demand.

    Apple has problems getting enough inventory to feed its own demand. This apparently is due to IBM's poor G5 yields.

    * Apple doesn't understand the needs of business computer people

    There's no on-site service, no guaranteed turnaround time, no dedicated support line for businesses. IBM would take care of this.

    * Apple's product designs are created with no input (as far as anyone can tell) from customers.

    This is a problem. Business computers have different needs than personal computers. They don't need a monitor,and need management tool integration (ARD is nice, but it needs integration with at least Tivoli, CA, and BMC).

    * Apple's product cycles are too fast

    The buying cycle for business computers is months. Apple's product cycles are a bit too fast, and they'll pop a new box out before the sales cycle is done, requiring readjustment of the sales contract. It's silly, but this is a logistical problem that needs to be fixed. At a minimum, older product needs to be available for shipment/purchase if newer models are released.

    * Apple hasn't successfully run a channel operation before

    Well, the edu channel was OK, but got whacked recently. Their dealer channel is competing with the Apple store. And basically, Apple may not be able to run a channel very well, being a consumer company.

    Don't get me wrong, the benefits to Apple would be huge. The benefits to IBM, the business world, and humanity would also be huge. But it's one thing to float an idea, and it's another to make it successful.