PriceSCAN Blog

It's interesting to contemplate what this might mean for the marketplace. If the Mac is now truly a full-blown Windows computer that also offers the pleasures of OS X, there's really no reason for traditional PC buyers not to consider Apple's product. The Journal focused primarily on the Windows angle, but the potentially seamless use of Linux on a Mac only strengthens this argument (readers of this blog will recall I argued for running Linux on the Mac in the blog piece mentioned above). Further, Apple's traditionally higher price point, long a barrier to acceptance, has now fallen to the point where Macs are very competitive with other value-added design machines (see "Apple Cool Selling At Surprising Discount To Sony Style").
Cupertino has been historically weary of embracing non-Apple operating systems on Macs, but with the substitution of Intel chips for PowerPCs, that attitude was bound to wane. Indeed, Windows and Linux users, now able to run their programs on a Mac, may now find themselves drawn to these machines by Apple's styling and in the process discover what it is about the Mac OS that inspires such loyalty among a certain coterie of users. Apple and its Mac OS may yet find a way to increase market share beyond the relatively modest level of recent years. In any case, now there's certainly more reason to consider the Mac than the fact that it looks good connected to your iPod.