Apple should by Adobe

[*LTD*]

Apple is a hardware company, not a software company.

They do both. OS X is pretty good software. iLife, once again pretty good software. One can go right down the Apple list of software and find all kinds of goodness.

But where Apple makes its money on the other hand, isn't software.

I think this is what you meant, am I right?

 

[MikhailT]

According to Apple, they are a "mobile devices company".

 

[jaw04005]

No, those stats are what Apple reported for OS X total install base. They are not including iPhone OS users.

Yes, they are.

"According to Apple’s Phil Schiller, Apple’s installed base of OS X has grown by nearly 300% since 2004. The last two years alone the number of users of OS X has tripled from 25 million to about 75 million, thanks to the iPhone and iPod touch.”

http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/mac-installed-base/

10:04AM "Here's a chart of OS X users over 10 years." It goes from 5m to 25m. "But something has happening..." he changes the chart to move up to 75m. "We've tripled the amount of users since iPhone." Big applause. "No wonder is trying to follow in our footsteps, so we'd like to tell you what we're doing to continue this market growth.”

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/08/phil-schiller-keynote-live-from-wwdc-2009/

In the past two years, there’s been a “huge spike” of new OS X users, according to Schiller, and Apple has seen the user base grow from 25 million to near 75 million users today, in 2009. That's thanks to extraordinary success of the iPhone and iPod touch, which both run a version of OS X.

http://www.macworld.com/article/141028/2009/06/triple.html

 

[LethalWolfe]

They do both. OS X is pretty good software. iLife, once again pretty good software. One can go right down the Apple list of software and find all kinds of goodness.

But where Apple makes its money on the other hand, isn't software.

I think this is what you meant, am I right?

Yeah, that's what I was going for.


Lethal

 

[DaveSW]

Yeah, that's what I was going for.

Lethal

“The big secret about Apple, of course–not-so-big secret maybe–is that Apple views itself as a software company.."

-Steve Jobs (AllthingsD)

 

[NT1440]

“The big secret about Apple, of course–not-so-big secret maybe–is that Apple views itself as a software company.."

-Steve Jobs (AllthingsD)

Indeed, they only make the hardware to ensure that their software operates as smoothly as possible to get a pleasurable user experience.

 

[LethalWolfe]

“The big secret about Apple, of course–not-so-big secret maybe–is that Apple views itself as a software company.."

-Steve Jobs (AllthingsD)

Steve also said they weren't making a tablet, they weren't making a smart phone, flash media in MP3 players is a dumb idea and no one would want to watch video video on a tiny iPod screen. Take a moment to step outside of Steve's RDF and you'll see where their revenue comes from and it doesn't come from doing things like selling $30k software packages for $1k. Apple knows that software sells hardware which is why Apple makes a lot of quality, first party software and services and charges very little for them because they know you have to buy a Apple hardware to take advantage of them. The razor is cheap but the blades will cost you.


Lethal

 

[*LTD*]

Hehe . . . at the end of the day it makes no difference whether Apple is a software company or hardware company. The proof is in the products - great hardware *and* software. And things are only getting better.

 

[DaveSW]

Hehe . . . at the end of the day it makes no difference whether Apple is a software company or hardware company. The proof is in the products - great hardware *and* software. And things are only getting better.

Steve Jobs always like to say to be good at software you need to be good at hardware (and vice versa)

 

[DaveSW]

Steve also said they weren't making a tablet, they weren't making a smart phone, flash media in MP3 players is a dumb idea and no one would want to watch video video on a tiny iPod screen. Take a moment to step outside of Steve's RDF and you'll see where their revenue comes from and it doesn't come from doing things like selling $30k software packages for $1k. Apple knows that software sells hardware which is why Apple makes a lot of quality, first party software and services and charges very little for them because they know you have to buy a Apple hardware to take advantage of them. The razor is cheap but the blades will cost you.
Lethal

When Steve said Apple was a software company, he didn't mean their main business model was selling software. it means software (and hardware) is what makes Apple products great.

 

[LethalWolfe]

When Steve said Apple was a software company, he didn't mean their main business model was selling software. it means software (and hardware) is what makes Apple products great.

Why did you bring up the quote if it didn't pertain to anything I was saying?
All I was talking about was that Apple pays the bills by selling hardware. I'm glad we are all in agreement about that.


Lethal

 

[DaveSW]

Why did you bring up the quote if it didn't pertain to anything I was saying?
All I was talking about was that Apple pays the bills by selling hardware. I'm glad we are all in agreement about that.


Lethal

because Apple's a software company. and a hardware company. and a mobile device company. etc.

 

[LethalWolfe]

because Apple's a software company. and a hardware company. and a mobile device company. etc.

Apple is also a fruit, a noun and a record label. But do fruits, nouns, and record labels have anything to do w/the context w/which I was talking about Apple? No.

So, for the third and hopefully final time, Apple's basic business model is to sell hardware (mobile devies are hardware, BTW). Do they also sell software, music, TV shows, etc.? Yes, to help drive sales of computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, TVs.


Lethal

 

[DaveSW]

Apple is also a fruit, a noun and a record label. But do fruits, nouns, and record labels have anything to do w/the context w/which I was talking about Apple? No.

So, for the third and hopefully final time, Apple's basic business model is to sell hardware (mobile devies are hardware, BTW). Do they also sell software, music, TV shows, etc.? Yes, to help drive sales of computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads, TVs.


Lethal

Their main business model is to sell hardware. but to say that Apple is just a hardware company is wrong and naive.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Their main business model is to sell hardware.

Which is all I've been saying for the past few posts. Thanks, again, for agreeing with me.

Lethal

 

[maflynn]

I've contemplated this from time to time wondering if its a smart move by apple or not.

My current leaning is that its not. While technically its possible to buy them and it will probably be a long and expensive battle, what how would they be a better company by snatching up adobe.

Its not like they'll be getting rid of a competitor as much as getting rid of a vendor who writes mac applications.

The mention of oracle and peoplesoft is not the best comparison, because oracle bought peoplesoft for the express purpose of killing the competition. Adobe is not in direct competition with apple, yeah there's certainly some overlap (aperture vs. lightroom) but in general adobe complements the mac platform not competes with it.

Second issue is making the marriage work, just look at the HP/compaq merger as a great example of two companies merging but it was a pure disaster. The risk is high the same thing would happen with the apple/adobe merger especially since they have very different corporate cultures and very different goals.

Finally apple isn't a computer company anymore, heck they dropped the word computer from their name a few years back. The software is a means to selling hardware and apple is not inclined to enter the software business where it will not extend/enhance/increase their hardware sales and buying adobe would not increase mac sales.

Edit
So why chew up a huge portion of their cash on hand and/or dilute their stock for a purchase that will probably have a negative affect on their bottom line for years to come and not increase sales of their computers.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

In order for them to see a decent ROI on a purchase like this, they would have to maintain a non-Mac OSX product line. They don't do the best job of iTunes or Quicktime on windows, and Shake was just a disaster. Someone got buyer's remorse and just threw that purchased app away like a shirt that didn't fit.

I'm pretty sure Apple just bought another company's DVD app for DVD Studio Pro. There are so many things in DVDSP and Soundtrack that do not behave like a Mac OSX program.

One of Adobe's bigger money makers is Flash. If Apple just killed that, it would be quite an expensive purchase to do so, further reducing any future income from the remaining "Applobe" product line.

 

[LethalWolfe]

I'm pretty sure Apple just bought another company's DVD app for DVD Studio Pro.

Correct. Purchase, rebrand and discount is Apple's typical MO for professional apps.


Lethal