Apple has come a long way since the mid 90’s, and we mean a long way. Case in point: on October 6, 1997, Dell founder and then CEO Michael Dell was asked the question of what he would do if he was in charge of Apple Computer. In front of a crowd of several thousand IT executives he answered “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Big words, little man. Big words.
Well guess what, Mr. Dell? It looks like the times have changed, big time. Not only did Apple end up doubling Dell’s market value by July 2007, they have now quadrupled Dell’s market value, rising $6.05 today in NASDAQ trading to close at $180 and bringing the company’s market value to $158.66 billion vs. Dell’s puny, laughable $38.97 billion.
Now is the time for Steve Jobs to hunt down Mr. Dell and get in his face shouting “how ya like me now, Mike? How ya like me now?” or something equally awesome. Seriously, if you were Steve Jobs at this point and you happened to run into Michael Dell, what would your means of gloating be? And don’t say you wouldn’t, because you know you would.
"Hey, Mike! Long time no see! Say, you don't mind if we talk shop for a second, do you? Because I was wondering, is Dell up for sale? I was thinking it would be a good thing to buy it, sell it off and give the money back to the shareholders..."
I'd get him a nice, engraved iPod. That would be the classy way to say "commodity hardware is a sucker's game."
Hey Mike, You got whipped,....DUDE.
That picture should win some kind of award.
Hey man! You! delliot!
Michael Dell was exactly right about The Apple Computer that he was referring to in October, 1997. There were no iMacs, no iPods, no TiBooks, and no OS X. The stock was floating around the $6 - $12 range. Steve Jobs had been back at Apple for less than a year, and there was no evidence at that time that his return (and the purchase of NeXT) was anything more than a publicity stunt by a desperate company. The Apple of 1997 was very much like the Palm of 2008 - a once great company that was on the verge of driving itself out of existence through a long series of missteps and products that lacked innovation.
Now it seems like "common sense" that Apple would rebuild itself with Steve back at the helm and become one the world's more powerful technology companies. But you would have been among the most delusional of fanboys to imagine that turnaround was possible in late 1997. As I type this on my MacBook Air, I consider myself lucky that Steve did turn the company around, but I can't agree that Michael Dell's assessment of Apple at the time was anything but accurate and sensible.
No need to gloat. Winning in the marketplace and with great products is proof enough.
who cares
I'd get all up in his face and say, "How you like them APPLE's???!!!??? :0)
"...but I can't agree that Michael Dell's assessment of Apple at the time was anything but accurate and sensible."
No, no, NO! That's the point, if you're getting paid the salary of MIchael Dell, you're not paid to analyze TODAY, you're paid for your vision of things to come. And MD missed it badly. An impromptu mistake in front of a crowd doesn't mean he's a boob - he may have regretted saying it the second it left his mouth - but results since that day speak for themselves.
You can dismiss us as dell-usional fanboys, but we were RIGHT. And I, for one, can retire on the money I made for being right.
If I were Mr. Dell, I would start making clones with Mac OS X Leopard and dare Apple to sue.
Apple's meek response to PsyStar's clones tells me Apple may not have a solid legal claim.
@lipbalm, you're missing the point entirely. The point is that Dell completely lacked any vision. He would have tucked his tail between his legs and walked away. Steve Jobs recognized that there were some amazing assets between his two companies.
When Dell is down at the half, he'd go home. Jobs opts for the amazing comeback.
I think Steve would salute a fellow PC business poineer and acknowledge that the business can't count Dell out of the game. Whether Mr D cares to admit it or not, he is precisely where Apple was way back then, guiding his company into a better position than they have been in the past 3 years. And he will achieve the turnaround by doing basically what The Steve did. He is remaking the company he created by returning to active leadership (like Steve Jobs did) from an interim when the company foundered under uninspired management.
He has a new vision of how to do business that trashes some of the basic tenets of how the business was run (low-margin direct sales only/no channel strategy). At the same he is recognizing and preserving the basic principles (make buying PCs simpler/solid technical support) that drove the success of Dell. And to ensure future growth and success he is making inroads into other opportunities of the business (managed storage and services) and targeting the higher margin, higher growth markets (consumer and Eastern European & Asian markets). Don't sell Dell short yet.