More thoughts on Windows running on a Mac

I was reading some of the comments with the C-Net News.com story about the Mac app that will let you run Windows. Lots of goofy ass comments that I think miss the mark.

Who is this really for? I think it's mostly directed toward people in the market for a laptop that want something with balls, and also want/need something that OS X can offer that Windows doesn't (in my case, that's the video applications). I think it will sell some hardware for sure. People make the argument about price, but I just priced out a Dell with similar hardware to the 2 GHz Macbook (same size hard drive, same CPU, etc.), and the Macbook was $100 less at academic pricing, and it's clearly a nicer machine (about $100 more with standard pricing). That's a fairly compelling argument to buy the Mac.

The biggest and most relevant speculation is that the next version of OS X will be able to run Windows virtually, and that makes sense. It's Virtual PC with none of the performance issues.

What's the bigger picture for Apple? They've been able to prove that people will pay a little more for better hardware if there's a compelling value proposition. The iPod (which simply works) proves this. Computers are a little more tricky, with the cheap commodity junk that Dell and HP sell though. I don't think they can achieve a dominant position, but they can increase market share among people that need a powerful computer. When you factor in the ability to run Windows, you remove one of the last barriers to entry.

It will be very interesting to see what develops.