Submitted by Michael Dell offered up some harsh advice a decade ago on how to fix struggling Apple Computer, words that now provide an ironic sting for the newly minted CEO of his own slumping company. “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders,” he said at a technology conference in the fall of 1997. Of course, Apple’s investors and Chief Executive Steve Jobs have gotten the last laugh. Back then, Jobs had just returned to lead the company he had founded, beginning what would become an exceptional transformation. Dell, on the other hand, has watched its business go the other way, and Michael Dell has been recalled to the helm to get it back on track.
Does this need any commenting? 😉
This seems just a tad odd.
Michael Dell (who has not been in charge of Dell for about 3 years) made a comment 10 years ago, that Apple was in a terrible state, and should have been sold off.
Steve Job’s came back, and proved him wrong, congrats to jobs.
Who is to say, that Michael Dell’s return will not prove similarly helpful to this behemouth? (I hate Dell’s customer service and corprate support).
I guess I don’t really get what the fuss is about.
Edited 2007-02-13 17:16
Who is to say, that Michael Dell’s return will not prove similarly helpful to this behemouth?
True.
But Michael Dell is no Steve Jobs.
I don’t see any products coming out of Michael Dell that are going to light a fire under anybody’s arse that would allow a reversal of fortunes at Dell.
Dell didn’t become what it is today because of technological prowess…rather, the only thing Michael Dell ever did was create a business process that flourished in the PC world.
Clearly, that business flow is now under performing in today’s multifaceted world.
‘But Michael Dell is no Steve Jobs’
Yeah, Dell is no where as much of a smug f–k. I refuse to patronize apple solely based on the fact that Steve’s ego gives me a headache.
What would you call his comments about Apple a decade ago then? Flattery.
Edited 2007-02-13 19:27
Anyone who shuns products from any company, just because they don’t like the persona of its management i think is dumb. (How much don’t you hear/know about where you buy stuff?)
How much of our perception is filtered through the limited second hand sources we read, all of it.
If the management was doing something you found morally wrong etc, I can see it. But frankly, whether Jobs, Gates, or Dell is an a-hole or not, all I care do they make a decent product that works for me.
I think if people are honest they’d admit its basically an excuse for the “side” they have decided to support. There are many other jerks in management in tons of companies but how many people are boycotting “Proctor & Gamble” or “Johnson & Johnson” because of this.
Just admit it, whether we admit it or not, we are all somewhat slappies for the OS we use. Its natural to support what you use and rebuke criticism of it.
Dell didn’t become what it is today because of technological prowess…rather, the only thing Michael Dell ever did was create a business process that flourished in the PC world.
Creating innovative business processes is not important? Maybe what Dell needs is some good old fashioned business acumen to get it back in the hot seat. Apple and Dell are different companies, but they have one thing in common (well, two actually, they both use the same hardware) 😀 They both were started by people with strong, good ideas, and both lost thier way, Apple came back better for it, why can’t Dell?
Perhaps the current management has been underperforming due to problems that are not attributed to Dell’s distribution channels, perhaps the problem lies with the fact that the current management needs focus, and a pissed off Micheal Dell might be the one to give them some
As of today:
Apple Market Value: $ 72,623,398,320
Dell Market Value: $ 53,576,016,190
Interesting articles from major publications featuring analysts and columnists predictions from ten years ago:
• Fortune, 2/19/1996: “By the time you read this story, the quirky cult company…will end its wild ride as an independent enterprise.”
• BusinessWeek, 10/16/95: “Having underforecast demand, the company has a $1 billion-plus order backlog….The only alternative: to merge with a company with the marketing and financial clout to help Apple survive the switch to a software-based company. The most likely candidate, many think, is IBM Corp.”
• A Forrester Research analyst, 1/25/96 (quoted in, of all places, The New York Times): “Whether they stand alone or are acquired, Apple as we know it is cooked. It’s so classic. It’s so sad.”
• Nathan Myhrvold (Microsoft’s chief technology officer, 6/97: “The NeXT purchase is too little too late. Apple is already dead.”
• Wired, “101 Ways to Save Apple,” 6/97: “1. Admit it. You’re out of the hardware game.”
• The Economist, 2/23/95: “Apple could hang on for years, gamely trying to slow the decline, but few expect it to make such a mistake. Instead it seems to have two options. The first is to break itself up, selling the hardware side. The second is to sell the company outright.”
• The Financial Times, 7/11/97: “Apple no longer plays a leading role in the $200 billion personal computer industry. ‘The idea that they’re going to go back to the past to hit a big home run…is delusional,’ says Dave Winer, a software developer.”
…Michael Dell should join the usual gang (Dvorak, Enderle, Gartner…) and learn how to keep his mouth shut and just focus on his company. Thats Karma to you.
“Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down”
– Jimmy Durante
US actor, comedian, pianist, & singer (1893 – 1980)
Edited 2007-02-13 17:28
How long are you going to reprint the same comment with 10 year old quotes, over and over again?
“””
How long are you going to reprint the same comment with 10 year old quotes, over and over again?
“””
This story is about a 10 year old quote, so I’d say the post is relevant.
Anyway, the story you linked is not particularly newsworthy in itself.
Dell’s in trouble! Dell’s desperate!
After all, having fallen from the #1 spot, there is no way that they can ever make any money again.
I swear to you that I saw Michael Dell panhandling on the street in my home town last week. Honest!
They are facing a class-action legal suit alleging that Intel gave them $1 billion. The US government is sure to shut them down when this is proven.
And their stock is valued at less than it was in 1999, when the buyfreshclamsonline.com domain registration alone was surely valued in the billions… as long as they kept the fact that they used Linux on their web servers in the investors’ view.
Add to that, they’ve put the man who made Dell successful in the first place back at the helm!
Can you believe it?
I see no hope whatsoever for this company.
I’m issuing a “Strong Sell” alert.
-Steve
Edited 2007-02-13 17:54
What happens ? You saw an Apple ad on your TV and you are angry now ?
You need to bash someone to calm down ?
Edited 2007-02-13 18:11
That would be odd. I seem to remember Thom being an Apple user. Or fan at least.
I’m indeed an Apple user, but that says little, as I’m also an avid BeOS/Zeta user, Linux user, and Windows user
.
Heh. Well, it might at least say you are at least less likely to get annoyed at an Apple ad than a rabid Windows-only/Linux user.
Maybe Michael should have kept his mouth shut, or better yet, when Steve did come back to the company said something along the lines that, “given that Steve Jobs has returned to Apple, it would be premature to make judgement on the final outcome for Apple in regards to its future”.
Michael Dell is to Dell what Scott was to Sun; a big loud mouth stuck inside a reality distortion field, completely oblivious to what is happening around him – if you don’t think Michael created the current problem with Dell, then think again; things like what are happening at dell are an accumulation of bad decisions over several years, and he played his part in that process.
Steve Jobs admits he made some stupid mistakes in the past; maybe its time for Michael to be the big man and admit the same.
Edited 2007-02-13 18:20
Do you get paid for copying and pasting the same comment over and over again on every apple thread or is it just a hobby of yours?
Apple’s turn around and the oft-touted exaggerations about its demise are well known.
Here is a very Roughly Drafted reply:
Apple’s cap is 70 some billions. How much is Pods? Maybe half? Probably more. How much is OS (which of course Dell doesn’t make)? Maybe half the rest?
You see that in this roughly drafted reply, Apple is around one quarter the value of Dell when apples are compared with apples….
Is it Dell getting it wrong after 10 years or Apple users getting it wrong after decades of idiotic articles spreading news about Microsoft’s doom and gloom?
Like him or hate him, Steve Jobs has a certain mojo that few other business leaders have, a kind of charisma you can’t put a dollar value on.
Not really. You might think that it’s Jobs doing the magic that made Apple so successful, but that’s not really true. What made Apple so successful was the fact that most users don’t really know anything about technology, marketing alone is enough to convince many users to make changes in the kind of tech/software they use.
I’d say Apple’s marketing people (and Jobs) know what they are doing, but Jobs by no means deserves the title of some kind of unique manager.
Apple gets praise for its marketing, but when you think about how they actually sold the big ideas, it’s not about being slick, it’s about being audacious and self-aggrandizing.
This is a platform vendor that has promised, delayed, half-heartedly delivered, and pulled products over and over again throughout its history, effectively killing their ISV/IHV ecosystem. Each time they convinced themselves (and their customers) that they were going to revolutionize the personal computer, with whatever document-stacking or stylus-drawing system they were pushing. Quickly the dream world dissipates, the ideas show their warts, and we’re on to the next Great Big Innovation. Everything has so much promise, but fails to deliver. Over and over again.
It was lonely being Apple. When you think you’re the only company in the world smart and cool enough to know how to make a personal computer, you can’t afford to let inferior companies muck up your brilliant ideas. Changing your mind over and over again as to which idea is the brilliantest keeps these mere mortals from even trying. When you only trust your own ideas, projects start to drag and things become more expensive.
Eventually Apple realized that Microsoft had beat them at not caring about what anyone else thinks. While Apple kept trying new things, Microsoft just kept releasing the same stuff with a few touch-ups here and there, getting their customers to pay for the same crap over and over again. Microsoft didn’t give a damn about their customers, but at least they let other companies get rich by providing the necessary features that they conveniently decided to leave out.
Bloodied but not defeated, Apple was determined to learn from their mistakes. It came down to a simple strategy: They would continue to keep other companies’ grubby hands off their revenues, but this time they would also make their customers pay for the same crap over and over again. So they entered the music business.
…of its own success. Over the last decade or so, Dell has made the PC such a commodity, and as with all other commodities, price is the differentiating factor. So it becomes a race to the bottom. I could hazard to guess that among the big players, Apple is probably the only company which sees a good return on their desktop lines. IBM decided they were not going to do commodities, and stuck to where they can make good margins.
Dell might have to become a trendsetter not in industrial process or assembly line, but where it matters to the buyer. Most of the money being made on PCs is made by Microsoft. Dell and co are now simply delivery systems for Microsoft software. I think they should get into an alliance and push Microsoft for a greater share of the software pie. Instead of buying software and reselling at a pitiful margin, they should all demand, say, 30% of the price of Windows, or whatever software they sell. Otherwise they are all better off finding alternatives so that they can compete better with Apple.
IMHO, Dell has its had in too much candy. They should go back to just selling pcs, screw tvs, printers and that jazz, thats what other companies are for. That and Dell customer service, what used to be number 1, is now a former shell of itself that was outsourced and is no better than talking to answering machine that has “answers”
“Hey Dude! You’re getting a Dell.
Wait.
Is something burning?
Hey Dude! You’re getting an iPod.
Apple was a stinking financial pile back in 1997, and it couldn’t have gone anywhere but up.
…their mouths at some point.
I still remember Ken Olsen saying that “personal computers will never amount to anything.” DEC was such a great company before that. *sigh*
ps – my “quote” is really a paraphrase.
It’s obvious that their own idea to undercut their competitors has taken a toll on the company itself.
The trouble is that Dell (the company and the man) had no idea about really innovating. The company has survived by eliminating competition. However, the combination of HP and Compaq has proved a bit stronger than the others.
It is a bit ironic that Michael Dell was so outspoken (over and over) against Apple but Dell will also survive as a smaller company than it is today.
Maybe Ben Curtis could offer Michael Dell a hit and tell him to relax.
What a bunch of bull Michael Dell is worth 3 times what steve jobs is worth so what is your point. One statement made 10 years ago and steve jobs 3 times the man that Michael Dell is? Please.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Homes_slide_9.htm…‘,800,600);
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Steven-Paul-Jobs_…