"The royalty he was talking about would amount to hundreds of millions of dollars, and the math just didn't work, because most of our customers, especially larger business customers, didn't really want the Mac operating system," he writes. Jobs instead wanted Dell to load Mac OS alongside Windows on every PC, which would have cost Dell hundreds of millions in royalties.ĭell smiles when he tells the story. "Why don't you license the Mac OS?"ĭell thought it was a good idea and wanted to pay Jobs a licensing fee for every PC sold with Mac OS, but Jobs was worried about PC sales cannibalizing Mac sales because PCs were cheaper. "He said, look at this - we've got this Dell desktop and it's running Mac OS," Dell tells me.
At the time, Jobs pushed Dell by telling him PC buyers could choose between Apple's software or Microsoft Windows. Jobs wanted Dell to use the NeXT operating system on Dell PCs, and he claimed that it was better than Windows.ĭell told Jobs that it wasn't going to happen because there were no applications for it and "zero customer interest."Īfter Jobs rejoined Apple, he once again attempted a software licensing deal, trying to get Dell to license Mac OS.
The 10 year anniversary of Steve Jobs death took place earlier this week, sparking tech leaders to share their stories of Apple's former CEO.ĭell CEO Michael Dell spoke to CNET, reminiscing about the time that Steve Jobs aimed to get Dell to license Mac OS to run on Intel-based PCs and how that might have changed the PC industry.Īs the story goes, Jobs first approached Dell about a partnership after being ousted from Apple and establishing NeXT.
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