MacDells: Serving OS X on a PC

What better way for Apple to gain more Mac switchers, increase its market share, and earn more revenues than by licensing the OS X? Makes sense, IMO. Besides, Apple seems to be slowly embracing Windows.

David Berlind of ZDNet thinks so too:

… I suggested that Dell might now be the perfect company to resell systems loaded with Apple’s OS X now that Apple is cutting bait with IBM’s PowerPC and switching to Intel chips. According to a report in Fortune Magazine, Dell founder Michael Dell said “If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers.”

Looks like Dell is more than willing to offer OS X pre-installed on its PCs if Apple allows them to. But, why would Steve Jobs not want to gain more market share (currently estimated at 4%) by licensing the operating system to bigwig vendors like Dell, HP or Lenovo? That could seriously cut into the Microsoft dominance in that market.

People are already making a lot of progress making OS X run on a PC (with PearPC). Berlind shares several reasons why this is the best time for Apple to make the move and I agree with him:

• Apple is enjoying a resurgence in popularity
• If the cost is right, the usability is proven, and the security is better, businesses might be ready
• Controlling the hardware while letting others manufacture it isn’t as hard as it used to be
• Apple is no longer alone in building a sleek, high quality chassis (notebooks/desktops) and cites Lenovo’s ThinkPads

At the moment, people wanting to switch to the Mac from a PC will have to invest on an entire machine, OS and softwares — the cheapest full-system starts at $999PHP 58,627INR 84,665EUR 951CNY 7,271 (iMac). Add to that the cost of new software licenses (iLife, iWorks, Office, Final Cut, Aperture, etc).

But, if Apple sells OS X separately, people with existing PCs can buy and install it, even run on dual boot, and try the operating system and familiarize with it. If they’ll like the OS, and I’m pretty confident they’ll do, their next purchase could be an entire Mac system. The transition is slow but painless. Apple wins.