And at the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo97 here today, the CEO of competitor Dell Computer added his voice to the chorus when asked what could be done to fix the Mac maker. His solution was a drastic one.
"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.
Dell's comments follow Steve Jobs's keynote address at the Seybold trade show last week in San Francisco, where the Apple cofounder seemed to win over attendees with his explanation of why he had made certain key decisions, killing the clone market and aligning more closely with Microsoft. The Seybold crowd--as well as some Apple employees--also seemed to be buoyed by the increasing role Jobs has taken on at the company as board member and interim CEO.
But others, like Dell, appear to think that Jobs's expanded role isn't helping. There is some concern that Apple will have a hard time recruiting a top-notch CEO because of Jobs's presence.
Others fear that Apple could end up completely in Microsoft's camp by deciding to use the NT operating system on its servers. Apple is reportedly planning to come out with network computers that would require high-end servers to function.
While many industry executives have offered opinions on how to right Apple's ship, no high-level executive has made as blatant a comment as Dell's.
- I'm Insulted
- Does Michael Dell really think people are dumb enough to not see his statements for the desperate add war propaganda that they are? Steve Jobs has been assaulted for decades as a spendthrift, hopelessly devoted to research. Well, what other company makes a COOL downloadable TV the size of a cell phone? Just pay your engineers enough to design a good product Michael and you won't have to sound so silly all the time. Oops, sorry times up....Here drink this iTonic and you'll forget you were ever in the Tech Industry....just like everyone else has......AND....If you know the right people you might even wind up working for a record label some day. Lame...so, so lame. brendan
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- And how lame are you?
- Brenden, I'd be careful complaining about Michael Dell being weird. Look more carefully at the date on this article. He said that back in 1997. I doubt he'd suggest closing Apple today. Good luck in your future career. Dave
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- I Stand Corrected
- Sorry, This was copy paste e-mailed to me today and I raged into a response mode. Not sure there aren't those who feel that way now about Apple who deserve such a tirade but that doesn't stop me from being lamer than Michael Dell. That is the price I pay for not reading the header....hmm But still....Apple doubters have paid a bigger price for thier lack of vision than I ever will for being hasty to come to Mac's defense. I do stand corrected, brendan
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- Wow - Some leader
- Wow. Michael Dell is some leader. It took someone much higher caliber than Michael Dell to turn Apple into a very successful company again.
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- Just goes to show you....
- Michael has been a bit of an idiot from time to time, but someone has kept Dell running as a company. It's difficult to picture Michael in that role. So maybe Michael is just a powerless figurehead? And if so, who's really running the store???
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- Just goes to show...
- Every Dog has his day..
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- 10 years later...
- What a diffference a decade makes! As of 27-7-2007 Apple shares are up $9.02, at $146.28. With 864,948,000 shares outstanding, Apple has a market value of $126,524,593,440. DELL are valued at nearly half that - just $66,172,115,820
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