Apple - What A Difference Eight Years Can Make

conq writes "It's been eight years since Michael Dell was asked after a speech at a Gartner conference in Orlando what he would do if he were in charge of Apple Computer. His answer: Shut the company down and give the money back to shareholders. BusinessWeek in its new Byte of The Apple Blog looks at how the tables have turned since then. For example, over the last four quarters Dell has been coming in with a net profit margin of about 6.5%. Meanwhile Apple just finished its fiscal 2005 with a profit margin just shy of 9.6%."

Comments

Not Apple Computers

[eqkivaro]

Apple computers are not selling well. Apple's turnaround is all about the iPod

Re:R&D ???

[mpapet]

Wow! 5 insightful? Looks like a few people drifted into the reality distortion field.

has come out with revolutionary products
Sorry, no. What they have done is put far more marketing muscle behind products that may/not work better and certainly suffer from a usual amount of manufacturing/planning problems.

that functionally make things easier
I have to agree with you here to a certain degree. But

Dell has simply operated as a reseller and box builder
Yes, once upon a time they did well going direct. They never really offer leading edge anything. They wait for a market segment to develop and define, then enter at a lower price. Innovation is for other brands you don't quote off the top of your head.

I like Apples too. I just got my neighbor to buy one.

Where Would Apple Be

[Cheirdal]

If they hadn't gotten a $150 million cash infusion from Microsoft in 1997? That kept the company afloat when it was about to go down for the third time.