But Dell has finally backtracked on that 1997 comment! Well, I don’t know. You tell me. At the Web 2.0 Summit, TechCrunch asked Michael Dell if he regretted saying he would shut down Apple and Dell tried to explain that his answer was “misconstrued”. Um, I’m not really sure you can get any clearer than what you said Delly. Anyway, he said he first tried to dodge the question but eventually said what he really meant was:
“The meaning of my answer was that I’m the CEO of Dell, I don’t think about being the CEO of any other company, I’m not a CEO for hire, so if you asked me what I’d do for any other company, it’s not really something I think about.”
So it’s not Apple specifically! Dell only knows Dell and because he’s not CEO of Apple, he has no idea what he would have really done. Seems like a half-hearted attempt to cover his arse. To be fair, Apple back then wasn’t even close to being the Apple of today so it wasn’t like he was crazy for saying that. Also to be fair, if Apple did fail, I’m sure Dell would have never backtracked on his comment. [TechCrunch]
Image: Getty
Hamish
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 9:59 AMAllow me to predict the makeup another glorious and insightful Gizmodo comment thread:
~inane comment about apple~
~angry response to comment~
~snide, wormy comment about what YOU would do if YOU were the CEO of Apple lol~
~someone will say ‘sheeple’ or ‘fanboys’ or both~
~funny joke~ #}
z3d
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:07 AMimagine that. a comments section where people comment about the article. mate you are a fricken genius
David
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:17 AM~angry response to comment~
samt
Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 12:07 PMHe walked right into that one haha
z3d
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:03 AMGood thing Michael Dell wasn’t CEO of Apple. A Dell can’t even shut down cleanly.
vijay
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:42 AMi brought a dell streak via optus. but when it was in repair and i called dell they said they will not support it…..seriously…Dell sucks :(
Sean
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM~restating a previous comment in a way that makes it obvious that I didn’t read the previous comments~
Barry
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 2:17 PMAt the time of when he said those comments, it was no doubt the best thing for Apple to do because they were losing money fist over fist, shares were dropping and well…it really was a sinking ship and if it wasn’t for M$ giving them (Apple) money to stay alive (M$ did well out of that I think) then Apple would be dead now. How people forget little things :-)
Induna
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 3:08 PMNo it wasn’t the best thing for Apple to do. What Apple ultimately did do was the best thing for the company, and its shareholders. Firing Gil Amelio, reappointing Steve Jobs, promoting Jonathan Ive and taking a risk on the iRange. Dell knows this and it’s his “quit when things are tough” comment that he want’s to distance himself from. Because if Michael Dell had been appointed CEO of Apple back in 1997 the personal computer landscape of today would be a very barren place indeed.
matt g
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 4:29 PMWhat a shite article. The comments Dell made were relevant back in 97.
Kroo
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 10:54 PMCorrect. The price of Apple stocks then were so low, you couldn’t give them away. Their computers were overpriced and hadn’t had a major OS upgrade to compete in the marketplace. If Steve Jobs wasn’t sacked from Apple, he wouldn’t have bought Pixar, which led him to NeXT, which led to the development of OSX, which is at the core of iOS, which why Apple are the giant they’ve become. Nobody could have foreseen this. Why hang Michael Dell for telling it as it was at the time.
Paul
Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 1:07 AMHmm, I really wouldn’t care what people thought of me if I was worth double what Steve Jobs is (was?). Michael Dell is filthy rich, he is not an idiot.
Bill Gates once said “In the new millennium there will only be two types of businesses, those with a website and those out of business”
Seems dumb too, but my local fish and chip shop is still in business and they don’t have a website. You want to crucify the guy worth 60bn next?
I’ll tell you who is stupid, me. I just bought an iPhone 4S for $800, it probably cost $80 to make.
Laugh all you want at what some guy said in 1997 (in hindsight and all that) but we’re the dumb ones.
Inb4 fanboi, I’m a PC, I just have an iPhone too.