Re:Apple isn't stupid (Score 1)

Well, I will grant you part of this argument and concede that Apple products do have an inherent yet unquantifiable coolness factor that makes them hard to resist. I think that Apple is wise to preserve their advantages in the market by remaining with their own hardware to ensure a synergistic user experience. Besides, consumers who are willing to jump on the Apple bandwagon aren't going to just settle for some rebranding and partial aesthetic experiences--as is evidenced by the lackluster sales of HP branded iPods. I think that the HP iPod was a true market test for whether or not Apple needed to outsource their marketing, warehouse, and sales departments to someone else to handle the demand. I believe this question was answered with a resounding negative: Apple can more than handle its tidy 4.5% of the market and no low-priced ugly Dell-esque bohemoth is necessary for the careful pruning, petting, and codling of the 4.5% of computer users who actually are okay with Apple's solution. You're right. Apple isn't going to go with commodity hardware--but the answer to bringing people over to the Apple platform isn't selling OS X for PC boxen, but rather baiting Windows users to shiny Macintosh computers with the lure of being able to run Vista... Consumers could buy minimalist mac minis with built in wifi and bluetooth for 600$ flat and still have a tasty decision between Windows, Linux, and OS X on the same machine.