It is sitting on a pile of dollars which in current climate is a big advantage.
It could aggressively acquire plenty of struggling businesses for pocket change.
But I am not sure why Apple would want to do that - unless there is something in it for them.
What is valuable in Sun that would be any use to Apple? Sparc, Java, Solaris? Meh!
There is some value in Sun's enterprise business - but I can't imagine Apple want to take that on.
C.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
Sun has engineering talent. Apple's relied on Sun created tools like Java, DTrace and coming up ZFS. Sun may be down but they still have brilliant employees.
Hardware- Sun has storage offerings that make the Xserve RAID look like a Dlink home NAS box.
Sun has more UNIX experience and fantastic development tools.
Where Apple excels and Sun does not is in making shrewd business decisions. Sun probably should have jettisoned sparc processors a while ago and focused more on entrenching Solaris. Apple has consistently made excellent market and product decisions since the return of Steve. They have also formed a word class team of Executives and run their operations as efficiently as any company on the globe.
Apple could revamp Sun but there would be initial culture clash just like the culture clash that hit Apple when the NeXTies came in.
Both companies are looking to leverage cloud technology. Sun is more interested in the backend whilst Apple is looking at the front end for attaining profits.
Sun would infuse Apple with far more relevant tech than say a much more expensive acquisition of Adobe would IMO.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
...snip...
Both companies are looking to leverage cloud technology. Sun is more interested in the backend whilst Apple is looking at the front end for attaining profits.
Sun would infuse Apple with far more relevant tech than say a much more expensive acquisition of Adobe would IMO.
You hit the nail on the head. Look at the problems Apple has been having with MobileMe and the occasional hiccup with iTunes and Apple online store servers. Now they're trying to launch iWork.com. Sun's engineering expertise could be a *tremendous* benefit to them in helping solve those problems.
Another thing many don't mention is Sun's excellent QA and documentation. Apple could also use help in those areas.
I'm not saying Apple has many weaknesses, but Sun's strengths compliment the few weaknesses Apple has.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
I am not convinced. But it's a very good answer.
Apple would end up a funny shape. With a high-end enterprise side and and consumer side, and a sort of vacuum in the middle.
But the cloud computing angle is certainly interesting.
Sun's core architecture is still superior to pretty much anything else unixy when it comes to multi-processor architectures. It is a bit pokey on regular hardware though. Still, it would make an awesome OSX Server...Solaris core with Cocoa on top would be fantastic.
What is valuable in Sun that would be any use to Apple? Sparc, Java, Solaris? Meh!
There is some value in Sun's enterprise business - but I can't imagine Apple want to take that on.
There's a more to Sun than meets the eye. ZFS, patents, talent, enterprise. It could prove a very under-the-radar move indeed. Provided they didn't pay too much, I'd love to see it happen. I'd personally love to see Apple buy Adobe though. Flash alone would be a good reason if you ask me. PS would be a mega-bonus. Could you imagine how well Flash would work on OS X, and how good PS would look if Apple took them over. Imagine combining the best of Aperture and Lightroom into a single fantastic product. Wow, come ON!!!!aucht;oivsortoi;msros
To make it plain in simple, Sun to the Enteprise Market is what Apple is the consumer market. I think the two companies have very similar philosophies and Sun's hardware and software engineers could only help Apple's server lineup and OS X server. Having control of Java (and whatever royalties are involved) and having Sparc to either use or sell are also of benefit to Apple.
After reading today's article about installing Win7 in Virtual box, it would make a good candidate for the base of a first party competitor to VMWare or Parallels, possibly as part of bootcamp.
After reading today's article about installing Win7 in Virtual box, it would make a good candidate for the base of a first party competitor to VMWare or Parallels, possibly as part of bootcamp.
Agreed...it's actually a surprise to me that Sun's evolving VirtualBox so quickly though eventually it will be a paid program just like Parallels or VMware.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good fit, I just think that Apple, or any other 'cash rich' corporations out there are very leery about the economic climate.
No one knows how bad things are going to get.
And imho, those who laugh when someone mentions the possibility of
a depression, are being at least a little ignorant.
There's a more to Sun than meets the eye. ZFS, patents, talent, enterprise. It could prove a very under-the-radar move indeed. Provided they didn't pay too much, I'd love to see it happen. I'd personally love to see Apple buy Adobe though. Flash alone would be a good reason if you ask me. PS would be a mega-bonus. Could you imagine how well Flash would work on OS X, and how good PS would look if Apple took them over. Imagine combining the best of Aperture and Lightroom into a single fantastic product. Wow, come ON!!!!aucht;oivsortoi;msros
The trouble there being that, while no doubt the OS X versions of various Adobe apps would eventually become more Mac aware, Apple would be saddled with maintaining the vast PC portfolio.
They couldn't just drop PC versions, as they would be stormed and burned to the ground. They couldn't even deprecate functionality, as they would be stormed, burned to the ground, and watched for any signs of life so the burning could recommence.
I just can't imagine Apple wanting to take that on unless they thought they could do a pretty good job maintaining a great deal of legacy software for a great many differently configured PCs, and I don't think they think that.
The trouble there being that, while no doubt the OS X versions of various Adobe apps would eventually become more Mac aware, Apple would be saddled with maintaining the vast PC portfolio.
Exactly. Adobe is too PC centric for an acquisition and frankly I don't think the company culture meshes. Adobe has their way of handle User Interface and Apple has theirs. I have little hope that the bastard offpring of Apple/Adobe would be anything but a jumbled UI mess.
Another thing that is more obvious is that you acquire companies that have product outside of your core competency. A Sun Microsystems acquisition strengthens Apple were they are decidedly weak...Enterprise.
And Adobe acquisition doesn't strengthen Apple's core competency but merely buys the pole position for graphics.
Apple could easily develop competitive software. Their DNA is graphics and publishing and Adobe wouldn't be Adobe without going through the same growth with Apple.
Exactly. Adobe is too PC centric for an acquisition and frankly I don't think the company culture meshes. Adobe has their way of handle User Interface and Apple has theirs. I have little hope that the bastard offpring of Apple/Adobe would be anything but a jumbled UI mess.
Who says you have to maintain the PC side? Just stop development where it is (keep on fixing bugs though). Apple's already done that with a few Pro Windows apps in the past. Yeah, it would really piss off Microsoft but Apple's big enough now to handle that.
Drop Adobe's proprietary cross-platform API shit and use Cocoa properly for the next version of CS. Make Flash work better on a Mac than a PC rather than vice-versa, with the ultimate aim of replacing Flash with QuickTime.
I agree that buying Sun makes more sense - so I say buy Sun first. Then, in three years time, buy Adobe, and five years after that, buy Microsoft
Comments
There's not much to substantiate here.
I've always felt that Sun and Apple could work well together.
It is sitting on a pile of dollars which in current climate is a big advantage.
It could aggressively acquire plenty of struggling businesses for pocket change.
But I am not sure why Apple would want to do that - unless there is something in it for them.
What is valuable in Sun that would be any use to Apple? Sparc, Java, Solaris? Meh!
There is some value in Sun's enterprise business - but I can't imagine Apple want to take that on.
C.
Apple are cash rich.
It is sitting on a pile of dollars which in current climate is a big advantage.
It could aggressively acquire plenty of struggling businesses for pocket change.
But I am not sure why Apple would want to do that - unless there is something in it for them.
What is valuable in Sun that would be any use to Apple? Sparc, Java, Solaris? Meh!
There is some value in Sun's enterprise business - but I can't imagine Apple want to take that on.
C.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
Sun has engineering talent. Apple's relied on Sun created tools like Java, DTrace and coming up ZFS. Sun may be down but they still have brilliant employees.
Hardware- Sun has storage offerings that make the Xserve RAID look like a Dlink home NAS box.
Sun has more UNIX experience and fantastic development tools.
Where Apple excels and Sun does not is in making shrewd business decisions. Sun probably should have jettisoned sparc processors a while ago and focused more on entrenching Solaris. Apple has consistently made excellent market and product decisions since the return of Steve. They have also formed a word class team of Executives and run their operations as efficiently as any company on the globe.
Apple could revamp Sun but there would be initial culture clash just like the culture clash that hit Apple when the NeXTies came in.
Both companies are looking to leverage cloud technology. Sun is more interested in the backend whilst Apple is looking at the front end for attaining profits.
Sun would infuse Apple with far more relevant tech than say a much more expensive acquisition of Adobe would IMO.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
...snip...
Both companies are looking to leverage cloud technology. Sun is more interested in the backend whilst Apple is looking at the front end for attaining profits.
Sun would infuse Apple with far more relevant tech than say a much more expensive acquisition of Adobe would IMO.
You hit the nail on the head. Look at the problems Apple has been having with MobileMe and the occasional hiccup with iTunes and Apple online store servers. Now they're trying to launch iWork.com. Sun's engineering expertise could be a *tremendous* benefit to them in helping solve those problems.
Another thing many don't mention is Sun's excellent QA and documentation. Apple could also use help in those areas.
I'm not saying Apple has many weaknesses, but Sun's strengths compliment the few weaknesses Apple has.
Because Sun and Apple are synergistic in key areas. Apple has little presence in high end Enterprise Sun has little consumer presence. There's little overlap.
I am not convinced. But it's a very good answer.
Apple would end up a funny shape. With a high-end enterprise side and and consumer side, and a sort of vacuum in the middle.
But the cloud computing angle is certainly interesting.
C.
Sun needs Apple as much as Disney needed Pixar.
What is valuable in Sun that would be any use to Apple? Sparc, Java, Solaris? Meh!
There is some value in Sun's enterprise business - but I can't imagine Apple want to take that on.
There's a more to Sun than meets the eye. ZFS, patents, talent, enterprise. It could prove a very under-the-radar move indeed. Provided they didn't pay too much, I'd love to see it happen. I'd personally love to see Apple buy Adobe though. Flash alone would be a good reason if you ask me. PS would be a mega-bonus. Could you imagine how well Flash would work on OS X, and how good PS would look if Apple took them over. Imagine combining the best of Aperture and Lightroom into a single fantastic product. Wow, come ON!!!!aucht;oivsortoi;msros
Sun needs Apple as much as Disney needed Pixar.
Did I read that right?
Sun needs Apple, or Apple needs Sun?
Did I read that right?
Sun needs Apple, or Apple needs Sun?
Sun needs Apple...to acquire them since they can't go the other way like Disney did with Pixar in much the same way that Disney needed Pixar's sparc.
After reading today's article about installing Win7 in Virtual box, it would make a good candidate for the base of a first party competitor to VMWare or Parallels, possibly as part of bootcamp.
Agreed...it's actually a surprise to me that Sun's evolving VirtualBox so quickly though eventually it will be a paid program just like Parallels or VMware.
No one knows how bad things are going to get.
And imho, those who laugh when someone mentions the possibility of
a depression, are being at least a little ignorant.
All this
imho
There's a more to Sun than meets the eye. ZFS, patents, talent, enterprise. It could prove a very under-the-radar move indeed. Provided they didn't pay too much, I'd love to see it happen. I'd personally love to see Apple buy Adobe though. Flash alone would be a good reason if you ask me. PS would be a mega-bonus. Could you imagine how well Flash would work on OS X, and how good PS would look if Apple took them over. Imagine combining the best of Aperture and Lightroom into a single fantastic product. Wow, come ON!!!!aucht;oivsortoi;msros
The trouble there being that, while no doubt the OS X versions of various Adobe apps would eventually become more Mac aware, Apple would be saddled with maintaining the vast PC portfolio.
They couldn't just drop PC versions, as they would be stormed and burned to the ground. They couldn't even deprecate functionality, as they would be stormed, burned to the ground, and watched for any signs of life so the burning could recommence.
I just can't imagine Apple wanting to take that on unless they thought they could do a pretty good job maintaining a great deal of legacy software for a great many differently configured PCs, and I don't think they think that.
The trouble there being that, while no doubt the OS X versions of various Adobe apps would eventually become more Mac aware, Apple would be saddled with maintaining the vast PC portfolio.
Exactly. Adobe is too PC centric for an acquisition and frankly I don't think the company culture meshes. Adobe has their way of handle User Interface and Apple has theirs. I have little hope that the bastard offpring of Apple/Adobe would be anything but a jumbled UI mess.
Another thing that is more obvious is that you acquire companies that have product outside of your core competency. A Sun Microsystems acquisition strengthens Apple were they are decidedly weak...Enterprise.
And Adobe acquisition doesn't strengthen Apple's core competency but merely buys the pole position for graphics.
Apple could easily develop competitive software. Their DNA is graphics and publishing and Adobe wouldn't be Adobe without going through the same growth with Apple.
Exactly. Adobe is too PC centric for an acquisition and frankly I don't think the company culture meshes. Adobe has their way of handle User Interface and Apple has theirs. I have little hope that the bastard offpring of Apple/Adobe would be anything but a jumbled UI mess.
Who says you have to maintain the PC side? Just stop development where it is (keep on fixing bugs though). Apple's already done that with a few Pro Windows apps in the past. Yeah, it would really piss off Microsoft but Apple's big enough now to handle that.
Drop Adobe's proprietary cross-platform API shit and use Cocoa properly for the next version of CS. Make Flash work better on a Mac than a PC rather than vice-versa, with the ultimate aim of replacing Flash with QuickTime.
I agree that buying Sun makes more sense - so I say buy Sun first. Then, in three years time, buy Adobe, and five years after that, buy Microsoft