why doesn't apple sell osx to pcs?they will dominate.?

Question

if apple ever makes it legal to have mac osx to run on a pc than just apple computers they will take over windows for market share.

right now mac has only 7% of the market.if they do this they will grow in large numbers.i just don't see why they aren't thinking this.

you can run windows xp or vista on a mac so why not osx on a pc?

what are ur thoughts?thanks for answering

Answer 1

Several reasons:



Apple are a hardware company that writes software to support their hardware. It goes against their business model to sell software for other hardware.



Making OS X work on generic PC hardware would be relatively tricky, and make the OS a lot more complex. This means there are more likely to be bugs, which people would blame on Apple rather then their hardware. Apple would rather OS X keep its reputation for being very stable.



Most people don't buy operating systems, they buy computers which come with operating systems. The market for stand alone sales of OS X isn't all that great.

Answer 2

That would seem like a good idea, but OS X would just end up having the same problems as Windows. Right now, Apple has complete control over what their operating system runs on. They build the computers and write the OS/drivers. Microsoft, on the other hand, doesn't have any control of what their operating system runs on. Because there are so many computer manufacturers out there, Microsoft couldn't possibly write drivers for all that hardware. Because of this, 3rd-party companies write all the drivers. Some of these drivers can be buggy or unstable or even conflict with each other, and Microsoft has no control of them. This is why SOME people have problems with Vista, and SOME people have absolutely no problems with it. It's not Vista that's buggy, it's the third-party drivers. So if Apple allowed their OS to be installed on any computer as Microsoft has, OS X would have the same exact problems as Windows.OS X isn't superior to Windows and Windows isn't superior to OS X, both OS's have their advantages and disadvantages.

Answer 3

Hi, Apple will not dominate anything if they release OS X for regular pc's. The first major problem they will face is hardware support. OS X supports pretty much no hardware outside the Mac world.



OS X would not run on any system due to lack of drivers and Apple will have to make majority of the drivers since hardware manufacturers only make drivers for mostly used operating systems. They still haven't started making great drivers for Linux why will they start for OS X? Making drivers is a time consuming task and even the Linux drivers aren't perfect.



OS X would become very unstable because the only reason it is stable now is due to extensive testing on Apple's chosen hardware.



Apple doesn't have the resources to support the entire world and provide support to every system, they will loose their reputation and control which they have on their systems. Not only that but many people won't switch at all since pirated software is not yet there for Mac OS X and many people use pirated software on Windows.



Mac OS X will itself start getting pirated and so will Apple's software and that will be another problem for Apple so they will have to introduce genuine advantage as well.



Apple's computers will not sell much if they release their software for everyone and they focus more on their hardware. Also now that their system will be allowed to run on any system then they will be increasing the risks of people finding flaws in their system and many hackers will target Macs.



EDIT:



LOL....Astro, half of my friends don't even know what the difference between pirated and genuine software is....;-)

Answer 4

Very concise and correct responses to this question. LEt me do this, rather than explain the obvious reason why Apple won't and can't write their OS for the PC world as a whole,.. LEt me address their domination on the OS stage.

N O N E

Mac is like the Birkenstock of shoes. Very cool and comfortable, but some peeps would rather go barefooted than wear em. Ms is like an old pair of Chuck Taylor Converses. Everybody has worn em, and know how they run... Some of us decide to go with the pumped up AirLinux... Snake You said, that people run pirated copies of s-ware? Is that possible? ;-]

Answer 5

It would make the mac more unstable, one of the primary reasons that mac's are more stable at the moment is that the hardware they can work on is very restricted.



Also I think that windows has too much inertia for mac to take over now.



Instead they are fighting battles on a new frontier e.g. itunes + ipod + imovies.

Answer 6

Several reasons the main one was an agreement by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

That is the main reason that the architecture was developd the way it was for Mac to run Windows but Bill wasn't interested in the flip side.

Answer 7

It will never happen.