Regular readers are aware of the long running feud between Apple and Dell, and between the CEOs of the two companies in particular (see links below). Dell has been on the offensive for the last few months, repeatedly saying in public that Apple was doomed, that Apple had no chance competing in a Wintel world, and that Apple just couldn't compete in the education market. Dell's campaign continued this week in an interview with ZDNet's Charles Cooper at C|Net. Mr. Cooper interviewed Bill Rodrigues, general manager of education for Dell, with a special focus on competing with Apple.

The interview was part cheerleading for Dell and part discounting of Apple. When asked if Dell had taken the education crown because of Apple's misstep or Dell's execution, Mr. Rodrigues said that is was "pretty good darn execution" by Dell. That's a direct answer to the question, something that Mr. Rodrigues was remarkably short of when asked a direct question about Apple.

Mr. Cooper asked what Dell's strategy was in pitching a Mac school, and Mr. Rodrigues answered that at IBM he found that schools want a reliable supplier. The follow up question:

Q. So what you're offering to the school district is the advantage of one business model vs. another?
A. Yes. The other thing you have to look at is total cost of ownership, and when you have multiple channels, it's going to cost more to maintain (purchased equipment).

In another question, Mr. Rodrigues was asked if Dell had any products that could meet the iBook. His answer involved market share mumbo-jumbo. From the article:

Q. In particular, the iBook has received a very warm welcome in the education market. Do you have anything that meets it?
A. The thing I find interesting is that when (Apple CEO Steve) Jobs says this will get them back into a leadership position in education, I don't know what that means. Roughly 14 percent of education market (dollars) is spent on notebooks. So, given that fact, even if he was the share leader in that space, I don't know how that gets them back into the leadership position.

I infer from this response that Dell has no product that can meet Apple's new iBook. In another example of major misdirection:

Q. If you win away a school district that was an Apple account, how is that different than winning away an account from one of your other competitors?
A. Once a district makes up its mind to start transitioning away from the Mac, it's typically going to be very difficult--that is, what's the reason going to be for them to go back? It would be a pretty big challenge for them and would go against their decision to migrate in the first place.

Hello? Is this thing on? Mr. Rodrigues' answer was as disingenuous as most of the barrage of comments from Dell have been. The intent of this answer is meant to undermine confidence in Apple by using Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD). It's sad to see Dell resorting to these tactics, but they are a Wintel company after all. FUD is the name of the game in that market, spearheaded by the FUD king of all time, Microsoft.

To Mr. Rodrigues' credit, sort of, he does refrain from directly insulting his competition when asked point blank if Apple's has lost its edge. It would seem that he would prefer to stick with innuendo and inference rather than direct attacks:

Q. Do you think Apple's lost its edge?
A. As I talk to customers, I feel pretty good about the value proposition we bring to the table--custom building, custom loading, free testing, delivering on time a quality product at good prices and giving excellent support on the back end--coupled with the quality of people we have in the field.

Q. Fair points, but again, do you think Apple's lost its edge?
A. I can't answer that. I can only let my customers' dollars speak for themselves. That's how I get feedback on how we're doing, besides the verbal feedback. And so far they're saying we're listening and doing the right thing.

There are some questions that were answered clearly. Mr. Rodrigues said he was confident his company could retain their lead in education, and that Dell was in a good position to fight. There were some non-Apple related questions that were also answered openly. It was a question about Dell's selling points, however, that really got my goat:

Q. Do you also use the wide gap in the numbers of people using Mac vs. the number of people using Wintel systems?
A. When you look at the professional world, it's primarily a Wintel world. You don't walk into many corporations and find Macs spread all over the place. For the most part, the majority of apps and computers you find in the commercial environment are on the Wintel platform. There's also the desire and concern of the superintendents and technology coordinators in the districts who want to make sure they are preparing their students for the 21st century.

As with the question about how handling a Mac school was different from handling a school that had already been sucked down the Wintel drain, the above answer was a non-answer that Mr. Rodrigues used as another FUD attack against Apple. He is *suggesting*, not proving, that Windows is an operating system for the 21st century, with the direct connotation that the Mac was not. Oh sweet Baby Jesus, if Windows is the OS of the future, please let me die now.

This allows me to segue rather nicely to one of my pet peeves about the Mac/PC education battle. Pinheads like this freakin' doofus I am ranting about now would like us to believe two things that are complete fallacies. The first is the idea that kids today will use the same OS in school as they will in their jobs of tomorrow, jobs they are not likely to get until several years after graduating from high school. Few young adults graduate from high school and head off to an office job after all. This kind of crap is as disingenuous as it can be. Would Windows 3.1 skills help someone working on Windows NT? No! Will Windows 98 skills help some poor schmuck hacking out a living using a Windows XP box? NEIN!

Computer skills in general are transferable from computer to computer and from one OS to another, but that holds just as true when you go from Mac to Windows as it does when you go from one crappy version of Windows to another! Computers change, OSs change, GUI's change, etc. People adapt. The ability to work with computers at all is what is important, not whether or not you know you have to go to the Start bar to shut your system down! That irks me to no end.

The second fallacy Mr. Rodrigues is trying to perpetrate is that schools are here to train kids for jobs. That is an evil thought. The US school system, as flawed as it is, is designed to educate, not teach our kids how to work in an office. Trade schools are designed for that task. School admins should be buying the best system that helps their teachers teach and their kids learn, while letting the work place worry about training. Any suggestions to the contrary are nothing but pure horse hockey. As I said above, even if that was their primary mission, it's futile. The industry changes too rapidly for them to do so.

All this manure oozing forth from Dell really makes me wonder why Dell is so afraid of Apple. They have put enormous effort into this FUD campaign against a company they say is irrelevant. Their very effort of their actions belie their words, and every day I look forward to the time when they will definitively have to eat their words. I know that saying Apple is going out of business will never go out of style, but Apple's efforts during the past 4 years is paying off IMO. More on that in another column, though.

In the meanwhile, it is time for Apple to fight fire with fire. I would really like to see them release a comprehensive total cost of ownership report. That is ammunition the company needs in its effort to sell against companies like Dell that would rather engage in a price war than make machines their customers feel compelled to buy.

Related Stories:

Taking a bite out of Apple - C|Net's interview fro this week

Dell Sneaks Past Apple In 1st Quarter Education Sales - October 28th, 1999

Apple Fights Back Against Dell's Education Claims - November 2nd, 1999

Slanted Report Touts Dell's Assault On Apple's Education Sales - April 4th, 2001

[Editorial] Dell's Spring Fever for Apple - April 6th, 2001

[Editorial] Dell Computer: The House of Idea - April 9th, 2001

ConsumerAffairs: Apple Is A "Good Guy," Dell Makes Rogue's Gallery - April 9th, 2001

Apple Lands Mammoth iBook Deal: 23,000 iBooks Sold To One School District - May 1st, 2001

Reality Check - Michael Dell's Worst Nightmare (Cartoon) - May 11th, 2001

Michael Dell Bashes Apple & Steve Jobs On CNBC - May 18th, 2001

The Back Page - For Once, Apple Should Follow In Dell's Footsteps - June 5th, 2001

Dell & Apple Duke It Out For Small Pittsburgh School District - June 8th, 2001

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began using Apple computers in 1983 in a high school BASIC programming class. He started using Macs in 1990 when the Kinko's guy taught him how to use Aldus PageMaker, finally buying a Power Computing Power 100 in 1995. Today, Bryan is the Editor of The Mac Observer, and has contributed to the print versions of MacAddict and MacFormat (UK).

You can send your comments directly to him, or you can also post your comments below.

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