10 years ago Michael Dell said Apple should close shop

[redrumloa]

Look HERE for a blast from the past.

Published: October 6, 1997, 2:00 PM PDT

ORLANDO, Florida--When it comes to the state of Apple Computer, everyone has an opinion.

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.

What has happened since then? Well look HERE to this 10 year chart. Apple's stock is up ~2700% in the last 10 years, Dell's stock is flat lined over 10 years.

Why, what happened? Well Dell just seems to keep posting disapointing earnings. Today they reported and it's stock price is down 10% after hours.

I think Mr Dell should shut down shop and give the money back to the shareholders :roflmao:

[AmigaHeretic]

That's a good catch.  

What can you say but, very funny!!  :lol:

I guess that's the difference between inovating and just putting out the same sort of blackish/brown poop colored brick style PCs for 10 years.

Mr. Dell do you think I'll be buying someone a brownish poop brick PC for Christmas or an Ipod??  ;-)

[redrumloa]

IMO it is really bad form for the CEO of a large company to make such comments about a competitor, especially in front of a crowd of thousands of IT professionals. Talk about being a {bleep}y a**hole and having your words come back to bite you hard. :crazy:

[adolescent]

redrumloa wrote:
Apple's stock is up ~2700% in the last 10 years, Dell's stock is flat lined over 10 years.

If you're going to throw useless statistics out, then why not look at both companies for the last 15 years, 20 years, 25 years?  It flips the charts quite nicely.  The fact is Apple stock in 1997 was <$4.  There are only two ways to go from there, bankrupt or up.

[redrumloa]

If you're going to throw useless statistics out, then why not look at both companies for the last 15 years, 20 years, 25 years?

Because he made his remark 10 years ago, I chose a 10 year chart. That only makes sense.

[adolescent]

redrumloa wrote:
Because he made his remark 10 years ago, I chose a 10 year chart. That only makes sense.

I see your point.  

But, at that point the Apple Computer stock was down ~58% (and still falling) for the last 10 years and was basically worthless.  Dell, on the other hand was up ~14,000% for the same period.  So, I'd say at the time Dell was probably right.

[redrumloa]

So, I'd say at the time Dell was probably right.

Right that Apple should have closed shop? It was dark days for Apple for sure, but I don't agree with the statement. Apple went on to become one of the greatest stories tech has ever seen.

My main point is it was a stupid statement for a man in his position, to say about a competitor, in front of thousands of IT pros. I bet he wishes he never made such a statement, it probably will come back to bite him. Steve Jobs was just named most powerful businessman by Forbes. Michael Dell otoh has calls for his ouster. What if the most powerful businessman made such statements about him and Dell in 2007? :-D

[adolescent]

redrumloa wrote:
My main point is it was a stupid statement for a man in his position, to say about a competitor, in front of thousands of IT pros.

Lots of CEO types do this.  In fact, the statement in question is a response to mud slinging by Steve Jobs towards Dell.  Ever seen Triumph of the Nerds?  Jobs slams Microsoft at every turn, and continues to do so to this day.  So, should the "Forbes Most Powerful Business Person" do this?

[Jope]

It's always nice to be on the winning side when the time for hindsight arrives, isn't it?

C'mon, they're just comp.. Oh wait, this is an Amiga forum..

/me backs away slowly

[redrumloa]

adolescent wrote:
Ever seen Triumph of the Nerds?  Jobs slams Microsoft at every turn, and continues to do so to this day.  So, should the "Forbes Most Powerful Business Person" do this?

Never seen Triumph of the nerds. OTOH I do see a point you are making, the switch commercials are a bit of a slam..

[trekiej]

If Apple were to release OSX for PC, do you think they would be elevated to MSoft status?

[persia]

Michael Dell is a bit of an arsehole, he also dissed the one laptop per child initiative.

[adolescent]

Edit: Removed message.  Was thinking of another initiative, not the OLPC.  

[DonnyEMU]

If Apple were to release OSX for PC, do you think they would be elevated to MSoft status?

That's a good question, would OS X run and run well on every hardware configuration that Windows and Windows Vista does? Could it support all of the chipsets and oddball hardware that Microsoft has to support? Would it support all of the vintage and out of date hardware? That's the real question because OSX right now only has to support a few limited configurations of hardware..

I'd even suggest after reading this below, that a lot of Mac people still depend on Windows...

Where Windows runs into problems (and specific implementations of Unix-like OSes) is support for chipsets and drivers for hardware that has to be invented and supported. Apple supporting "everything" would have a more difficult time than it does now..

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/business_applications/microsofts_big_mac_sales.html

[Waccoon]

Apple's stock price didn't change much with the introduction of the colorful iMacs and OSX, though.  It's the iPod that did it, transforming Apple from a computer company into a media company.