@Kol. Panic: They can get out of the computer business and license the OS to other manufacturers
They could, but the question is if they want to. I don't think they want to. Both NeXT and mid-nineties Apple tried this approach and both were a disaster. If anything, the industry is slowly waking up to the fact that integrated hardware/software is the only way to make a solid consumer product. That's at least part of Microsoft's motivation for the Zune.
Enterprise may be better served by multi-vendor hardware and a platform-centric view of software, but the consumer doesn't care about any of that. They just want the thing to work. I think the Alan Kay quote that was highlighted during the keynote eliminated any doubt as to how Apple sees the relationship between hardware and software. They're two parts of a whole.
by Scott Stevenson — Jan 26
They could, but the question is if they want to. I don't think they want to. Both NeXT and mid-nineties Apple tried this approach and both were a disaster. If anything, the industry is slowly waking up to the fact that integrated hardware/software is the only way to make a solid consumer product. That's at least part of Microsoft's motivation for the Zune.
Enterprise may be better served by multi-vendor hardware and a platform-centric view of software, but the consumer doesn't care about any of that. They just want the thing to work. I think the Alan Kay quote that was highlighted during the keynote eliminated any doubt as to how Apple sees the relationship between hardware and software. They're two parts of a whole.