Apparently Apple is out of the computer business. I just don’t know Cringely. Sure the Mac is only 25% of Apple revenue now. But what does that mean? iPhones, iPods, iTunes, App Store etc are all raking in relatively more money. I’ve already seen a lot of people make this statement. Apple is out of the PC business, they’ve forsaken OS X. Really? 

Even if Apple was a little late in some releases of PC hardware and software. I’m not surprised. This is a company that has exploded with entire new products, platforms and services over the past 4 years. They’ve rushed to release a new product every cycle and they’re still trying to keep up with the competition from Android (and nothing much else). So I’m not so surprised that they could have diverted attention and resources away from their previously core business. 

But does it make sense that they would forsake it? Will they make xCode for PC, and then buy everyone at Cupertino a tower from Dell? Macs are still profitable, their technology still dovetails with the iPhone etc, and there’s no reason for them to stop making them. They have all the people to do the all the (pro) hardware, software and otherwise and they are able to charge a price that makes them a profit. So why would they do away with it?

IBM knew it when they sold off their consumer division to Lenovo — PCs are commodity machines now. Does that mean Apple is getting rid of theirs? I don’t think so, they are able to sell their PCs at above commodity prices. What it does mean is that the competition, and the market, are very well established. And Apple has won its market-share in that area already. Basically they can let Mac slide a bit now to concentrate on the development of this huge smart-phone/tablet market.

But is it somehow that Apple no longer thinks it can contribute to the PC space? I think they do. I just think they can’t hire so fast as to keep up with what’s been going on. There are already rumours (which usually end up being true thought it might take a few years) of iPhone/iPad tech being folded back into the Mac. I’m pretty excited about that prospect, but I also don’t see Apple saying to its power users that they need a PC. Nor do I think many people at Cupertino use Mac Minis.

Besides, if you’re going to have a Mac Mini, iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro, why are you doing away with the Mac Pro? It’s got the same software, and it’s likely got a strong market (with all the media type Cringely mentions). 

With the recent expansion of Apple it’s likely they need more talent working there. But at the same time, it’s not a god idea for them to expand in such a way that they hire the wrong people. If you check their hiring page, you can see they’re hiring all across the globe. But it’s likely that they’re going to be selective as they do it.

All these products are strongly interrelated. The development suite for iPhone and Mac are on the Mac. The hardware and technologies are similar. You already have hundreds of engineers who have built the systems and software for the last decade and you’re increasing your PC market-share faster than any other PC maker. Why are you going to get out of that space? Apple has a lot of share to gain on the virgin smart-phone territory, but they have a lot of share that they’re gaining in the PC business too.