[NaMo4184]

With the recent events and all i think apple should take a different business strategy when they settle into intel hardware.

First they should separate the hardware (Apple) and the software (macintosh). Commodity hardware works fine. There really isn't going to be a big difference in stability for what hardware OS X runs on. As for chipset compatibility I am under the impression that Darwin is an open source project. If you can get Darwin to work on all the x86 hardware I don't see why OS X can't. So I am saying that OS X should not be tied down to Apple hardware. The befits of this are enormous: the increased market-share will mean increased third party development for OS X=increased market-share, Also It means more people using quicktime and itunes meaning more ipod sales, Also with more users there will be more bugs found which will lead to a better OS.

Apple should be pretty aggressive with getting people to actually try the OS. I think they should sell a special trial addition OS that is like 10 bucks dollars. I think it should be like virtual PC in the sense that you can still run your default OS and just have OS X in a separate window. This trial addition should last for quite some time( 2 months). I figure people will try it for like an 1-hr just to play with it and then use it off and on. Until they are like "hell yeah this is great" and decide to buy it. They Trial Version should give links to download Trial versions of ilife iwork, and all the other apple software available. If you decide you want to use apple's stuff then just buy a license if not no harm done, just 10 bucks instead of 500 for a mini. What ever the method the point is that there needs to be a easy way to try out OS X for an extended period of time. I took me like 3 hrs of playing with OS X before I finally got how the dock, finder, and file system worked to my benefit compared to windows. They should also try to sell this trial version through PC vendors that they contract to sell OS X.

As for the hardware, it needs to hold its own weight. You can't tie down one product for the sake of another. The best solution here is just make the hardware worth the money. Apple has Ive and he is a freaking genius, giving them a decisive advantage in the design area. Also Apple can bundle iLife and iWork in for free. If they have those things and are 5-10% more expensive than dell then they will still make a shit load of money. because the software plus the hardware combinations is 100% apple, looks, better, and is cheaper in the long run because it has all the the software you need. I am not saying they shouldn't cut other rPC vendors a deal, just not a deal as good as there own.