[Luca]

http://daringfireball.net/2006/10/gartner_jackasses

What idiots. These jackasses (as the guy at Daring Fireball so accurately describes them) say that Apple should stop making computers. This comes just a day after Apple announced one of their most successful quarters in the last decade. What the hell? Just read the article, it pretty much speaks for itself:

Yesterday Apple announced its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006, which included the following tidbits: the most Macs ever sold in a single fiscal quarter (1.6 million) the most Macs ever sold in a fiscal year (5.3 million) strong quarterly profits ($546 million) high gross margins (29.2 percent) Two days ago, Gartner “analysts” Mark Stahlman and Charles Smulders issued a report recommending that Apple abandon the computer hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell. Hello, Gartner? 1997 called and they want their advice for Apple back. Now there are jackasses, and there are jackasses. I’m occasionally hesitant to bestow Jackass of the Week honors on muckraking columnists and webloggers, because I suspect it’s exactly what they want. Not necessarily Daring Fireball Jackass of the Week honors in particular, but notoriety — and page views — for saying jackassed things. “Any publicity is good publicity”, that sort of thing. Cf. John Dvorak, who happily admitted to Dave Winer, on camera, that he purposely writes things “in a weaselly sort of way” to anger Mac users and get them to link to his columns. (He’s had the same M.O. since his days as the back-page columnist in the old MacUser magazine.) Or take this week’s previous jackass,1 Larry Bodine, who wallowed gleefully in all the attention his jackassed Law.com opinion piece garnered. These Gartner analysts are supposed to be for real, though, which makes this all the more crazy. A columnist or weblogger might reasonably decide to keep score based on the attention they bring upon themselves (and the page views they ring up for their site). These clowns from Gartner aren’t running a weblog, though. Their reputations are built solely upon the quality of their analysis. It was one thing when analysts were calling for Apple to get out of the hardware business a decade ago, when the company was struggling for profitability. It was bad advice, but if you’re not profitable something has to change, and getting out of the hardware business would certainly have been a change. But now? When Apple is selling more Macs than ever before? When Gartner’s own market share research indicates that Apple is gaining on the rest of the industry? It boggles the mind.

I originally posted the full article but it's really long. Worth the read, though. These are just the first few paragraphs.

[Fahrenheit]

To Dell!!!? The idea was bad enough, but to Dell!??!!

[Sargasm]

Ahahahahaha

[turtle]

My respect for Gartner just dropped.

[PB PM]

That is just silly. People need to turn their PCs off and their brains on.

[Luca]

When you think about it, Apple's business model is the most successful. They're more profitable than Dell, despite selling fewer computers.

Think of what that means. With fewer customers, you need fewer employees, and thus you can treat your employees better while still spending less money. With fewer customers, you can afford better tech support. Look at the Genius Bars - free, expert help at any Apple store if you own a Mac. Dell would never do something like that. And Apple's customers are very loyal. Dell's only appeal is in their low prices, so if they don't have the lowest price, they lose customers. Apple's the other way around. Their customers are loyal.

Oh, and as the article points out, Apple has the 4th largest market share in the US, and is only slightly behind Gateway. Yet it seems that many analysts take the shortsighted and childish route of looking at only one aspect, and saying that market share is the only important statistic. Maybe they should step back and see which company is the most profitable. They might be surprised that selling zillions of machines for no profit isn't always the best way to do things.

[Engine Joe]

Originally Posted by Luca What idiots. These jackasses (as the guy at Daring Fireball so accurately describes them) say that Apple should stop making computers. This comes just a day after Apple announced one of their most successful quarters in the last decade.

They're jackasses no doubt, but to clarify, it doesn't come a day after Apple's announcement - the Gartner report was issued before Apple's results came out.

[thegeriatric]

Yeah i'd buy a Dell running Mac OS. Hahahahahahahahahaha..............Can't stop laughing .......Can't breath............

[PB PM]

I wouldn't take a Dell if they paid me to take one, with OSX or not.

[LudwigVan]

Isn't HP outpacing Dell at this point anyway? I thought I read something to that effect a day or two ago.

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by PB PM I wouldn't take a Dell if they paid me to take one, with OSX or not.

You'd be a fool to not taking something worth several hundred dollars, even if your intentions weren't to use it. You could sell it.

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by LudwigVan Isn't HP outpacing Dell at this point anyway? I thought I read something to that effect a day or two ago.

Internationally, yes, but here in the states, Dell maintains a healty 10-point lead.

But, while HP is growing, Dell is shrinking. I believe Dell lost 3 points while HP gained 3.

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by PB PM I wouldn't take a Dell if they paid me to take one, with OSX or not.

I would take the Dell, sell it, and then turn around and buy a MacBook.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by cynical_rock I would take the Dell, sell it, and then turn around and buy a MacBook.

I'd take the Dell, set it up Folding and leave it. Then again, I'd also make it a file server too.

[WMD]

Originally Posted by turtle2472 My respect for Gartner just dropped.

You mean, you had some before?

[Fahrenheit]

Originally Posted by cynical_rock I would take the Dell, sell it, and then turn around and buy a MacBook.

But then you would be fuelling their growth.

[turtle]

Originally Posted by WMD You mean, you had some before?

Ok, you got me.

[Robo]

The MacBook has been huge for Apple. Huge. It's shockingly popular at my college - it seems the only people who don't have a MacBook are those with an iBook or PowerBook.

I mean, yeah, there's a few PC notebooks - I know one guy with that shitty 12" Dell a Nova user recently chose over the MacBook, and Vaios seem popular with the Asian kids - but think about what I just said. There's a few PC notebooks.

The MacBook was a perfectly timed product for Apple. It was an all-new, Intel-powered notebook that matched the iPod. And the amazing thing is, that is all without a real advertising campaign. Yeah, some of the "I'm a Mac" ads showed a MacBook at the end. But it seems like the MacBook's popularity can largely be attributed to word-of-mouth. I know several of my iPod-toting friends have asked me about the MacBook (it's no secret I like Apple) and one of them went out and bought one.

So, um, yeah. To ape a Bravery line, Gartner puts the "art" in "retarted."

[ast3r3x]

Originally Posted by Roboman …and Vaios seem popular with the Asian kids…

wow

[CoolToddHunter]

While I think the Gartner advice is phenomenally bad, for a certain goal, it makes sense. If Apple wanted to increase OS market share, rather than system market share, licensing to Dell might very well be the fastest and most profitable way to accomplish it. Again, brain-dead advice, but valid for a specific brain-dead goal.

[Frank777]

We've gone over the licensing issue a thousand times before.

Apple's last foray into licensing MacOS failed because Amelio set up a cumbersome and unworkable process of having Apple engineers personally test every clone system before release. That's insane, but it allowed Apple to maintain quality control and ease-of-use.

For the Apple experience to work, Cupertino needs to maintain overall control of the hardware and software. Simply adopting the Windows model will not work. In the Windows world, Microsoft sells the OS and Intel sells the motherboards.

Reintroducing clones can work in the Apple universe, but not in the way Gartner is advocating.

Apple would need to sell both the OS and the motherboards to OEM manufacturers. That's all.

[Robo]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x wow

What? It's an entirely true statement. At my college, the only people I've ever seen with a Vaio are Asian, and I can't remember ever seeing an Asian with any other notebook. Usually, they just have a super-big PocketPC smartphone and/or an electronic dictionary, though (although those "dictionaries" are almost mini-laptops in their own right!).

Forgive me if I was in any way racist for simply making a valid observation...

[drewprops]

An observation isn't racist, relax.

[Partial]

Originally Posted by ast3r3x You'd be a fool to not taking something worth several hundred dollars, even if your intentions weren't to use it. You could sell it.

I was thinking the same thing

[chucker]

chucker thinks Gartner analysts should stop getting paid as much