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

Which would you rather?

[tkrotchko]

I'd rather have 6% of a huge number than 9% of a large number.

No seriously, Dell is an amazing company when you consider they are competing in one of the most cutthroat market segments in high tech. IBM sold the last bits of their PC business a few months ago. Gateway is now pretty much irrelevant... even the Japanese titans can't compete with Dell.

Re:R&D

[brkello]

You know, there are different types of innovation. I just attended MILCOM and one of the guest speakers was talking about innovation and they listed both Apple and Dell. What did Dell do? They innovated the process of purchasing and distributing a PC. They are able to offer lower prices and make PCs accessible to a greater number of people. You may not think that type of innovation is as important as Apple's...but really, Apple didn't do anything technically innovative. They are innovative in design and user interfaces that appeal to the masses.

Comparing Apple to Dell is comparing apples to oranges. Saying one company is more innovative than another is just plain silly. They have totally different business models. Then trying to back up your opinion by saying your organization is buying more Apples than Dells is totally irrelevant. Who cares? I really don't get the emotional attachment to tools. Apple systems are a tool. PCs are a tool. Just like any tool, there is a right tool for the job.

R&D???

[LWATCDR]

Dell doesn't do R&D. They use Intel CPUs and usually Intel chipsets. I believe even the motherboards are Intel reference designs. Dell assembles parts into boxes. Apple is frankly going the same route at least when you are talking about hardware. They will use Intel cpus and chipsets. That is the whole point of Apple going to Intel. They can buy solutions. At least Apple does it's own OS.