Steve Jobs Apparently Tried To Sign Deal With Dell To Put Mac OS In PCs
Image via Nanain / Shutterstock.com
Tuesday marked the 10th year since the passing of Steve Jobs, and many have come forward to share memories and anecdotes of their experiences with the man behind Apple.
One such recollection comes from Michael Dell, who spoke to CNET about a proposed deal between the two companies that, if it had been inked, would have changed the way Apple developed as a company.
Describing Jobs as a “brilliant entrepreneur,” Dell recalled when Jobs had approached him about licensing the Mac operating system—Mac OS X at the time—and including it on the Intel-based PCs Dell was working on at the time.
A longtime Apple fan, Dell received an Apple II at the age of 14 and promptly took the entire thing apart in order to learn more about it. In his book Play Nice But Win, he recalls meeting Jobs in the spring of 1980 and became friends a few years later when Dell launched his own PC business.
Jobs had come to visit him in Texas several times, reportedly trying to convince him to use his OS, developed at the time under his own company, NeXT. He was claiming that it was better than others of the time, including Windows. Dell had to reject him because there weren’t any apps compatible with the system and, not to mention, no customer interest.
Years later, Jobs hadn’t given up, even after rejoining Apple. He began pitching a newer version of the Mac operating system to Dell, suggesting that the PCs produced by his company could offer its users the choice between Microsoft’s Windows OS and Apple’s Mac OS installed on their machine.
Dell offered to pay a licensing fee for every PC sold with Mac’s OS installed, but Jobs had disagreed, worried that this would cause Apple’s own sales to fall because Dell’s computers were less expensive. Instead, he suggested including the Mac OS alongside Windows on every Dell PC to let customers decide what they wanted. Then, Apple could be paid for every Dell PC sold.
CNET reports that Dell “smiles when he tells the story.” Although the deal was a “nice try,” it wasn’t “an economic proposition that made a lot of sense”: he’d end up having to pay Apple even if the buyers didn’t choose Mac’s OS.
Ultimately, the deal never happened. However, there is a lingering air of “what could’ve been” when recalling this proposal.
“It could have changed the trajectory for Windows and Mac OS on PCs,” Dell told the news outlet. “But obviously, they went in a different direction.”
Despite publicized business rivalry as depicted by the media, the two remained friends throughout. Of Jobs’ legacy, Dell concluded, “we need dreamers and idealists—people that have an unbelievable and difficult vision for how the future comes together—to drive things.”
[via CNET, image via Nanain / Shutterstock.com]
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