I’ve been reading along with everyone else who follows Apple, about this suit against Psystar. A thought occurred to me.
What if Psystar won?
What would that do to Apple’s business strategy and the structure of the their margins? Right now, it seems that most of Apple’s margins (profit) come from their hardware sales. So, defending any threat to that income stream makes sense. But what changes would have to occur at Apple if they were no longer able to dictate who sells computers with their Operating System installed?
It seems to me that they would have to re-factor their focus from hardware (at least in regards to desktops, notebooks and servers) to software. They would have to become more like Microsoft (Oh no!). That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Don’t freak out….
My assertion would be that Apple would still want to keep control and here is how they could do it.
Even though at this point, Apple could not stop a hardware reseller from selling computers with their OS installed (except by stop selling retail copies, which I don’t see happening), they could refuse to provide support for copies not installed on their approved hardware.
In this strategy, I could envision Apple making deals with the major computer resellers, like Dell Computer, which has expressed an interest in shipping box’s with OSX installed, to be an authorized reseller of their OS on the resellers hardware.
Of course, being an authorized reseller would require certain concessions which would protect Apple’s margin to offset loss of hardware sales. They could also control what hardware goes into these box’s to insure the same kind of integrated experience that Mac Users have come to expect from a Macs.
The chances of Apple losing their suit is small, but what if? It sure is fun to think about.
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