Looking back: Windows on a Mac – strategy or pure accident?

Do you remember when Apple released BootCamp, the software that lets any Mac with an Intel processor to run the Windows operating system natively?  I sure do.  I remember waking up to what was a sunny Florida morning on April 5, 2006, firing up my trusty non-Intel iBook G4, and seeing the headlines: “New Apple software lets Intel Macs boot Windows,” they read.  Immediately I understood what was happening: Apple just took away a major reason (or excuse) that prevented the Mac from becoming more popular.  But how did BootCamp, and subsequently, other virtualization tools, come about?  Hit the Read More link to find out.It was something that was intriguing ever since Apple announced the switch-over to Intel chips in the summer of 2005 at WWDC.  The questions and hypothetical scenarios poured in: “doesn’t the switch to Intel make the Mac a regular wintel box?  What prevents me from running Windows on it instead of the Mac OS?”  All that was answered with the release of BootCamp and the subsequent releases of virtualization programs from Parallels, VMWare, and Codeweavers (makers of Cross-Over).

Yet to this day, I wonder when did Apple realize that switching to Intel processors would benefit the company as much as it did, market share-wise .  In other words, did Apple factor in the amount of new-to-the-Mac buyers due to being able to run Windows on the Mac when it decided to put “Intel inside”?

I’m of the opinion that Apple’s switch to the Intel architecture was not influenced by the influx of new users that the ability of running Windows on the Mac has brought; it was a coincidence.  A good and lucky coincidence, one that keeps giving back to Apple today and will continue to do so for years to come.  Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that Apple doesn’t know how to beautifully market its products and how to make careful and well-timed strategic moves and decisions.  The company employs a great share of talented people with whom I wish I can be given the opportunity to one day work.

What I am suggesting is the following: Apple has been on a path to nearly flawless execution in marketing its products and services.  Don’t agree?  Just look back over the last five years of Apple product introductions and it’s difficult to find another company whose products have realized such great success and which have been received with such excitement.  This next-to-flawless carrying out of product/service introductions and roll-outs has paid off: it gave Apple something to be “lucky” about – BootCamp and Windows on the Mac.

So the moral of the story is: do as much as you can right, and some things will fall into place without much effort.  (In the same way Windows on a Mac came about and gave Apple an influx of Mac customers, doubling the Mac’s market share over the course of only a few years).

 

 

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Posted in Apple, Business, Companies, Decisions, Mac, Marketing