Apple Should Spin Off the Macintosh

I get suspicious over seemingly minor little changes. A recent "little change" got me thinking that Apple might spin it off its computer division into something I'm calling the Macintosh Computer Company: the renaming of OS X back to MacOS. Because what's the point...unless something is up?

In 2007, Apple Computer became Apple, Inc. so it is not as though the de-emphasis on computing has not had a long ramp. Nor does it mean that the company is losing interest in the Mac. But Apple has failed to make any major upgrades to its MacBook lineup in over a year, prompting complaints from pundits and the public.

If you were going to spin off the computer division of your company, you would do it with fanfare and a whole new line of machines to get a massive buzz going. Headlines such as "Terrific New Mac Machines Jumpstart New Offshoot" and "The time is right for this!" would abound.

The reasons to do this are obvious and simple. PC sales are flagging. While the market for desktop computers and laptops is still enormous, it's seen as dead. You can see it in all the worldwide tech reporting. It's become a boring replacement market as people keep their systems longer and longer.

This means the computer division of Apple will eventually become a genuine albatross around the company's neck. So it's better off as a standalone company focused on computers, pretty much like it was pre-2001 when the iPod showed up.

The new Mac company would be assured success by contracting with Apple for access to the Apple stores for its primary sales channel. It could also contract with Apple for the use of its industrial design team. If Apple maintained the majority of the shares of the new company, it could roll out an IPO and add the value of its shares as an asset while writing off the loss of the division.

Maintaining majority ownership would prevent any third party such as Google or Microsoft from acquiring the company. Thus the current Mac mavens, who hate any alternative, would see almost no change in the milieu.

Apple, Inc. benefits in all ways, but mostly it gets out of the moribund computer business insofar as its shareholders are concerned. Mac end-users and its community would not know the difference for years to come. It also allows the Mac to break free from the Apple walled garden, which seems to be centered on the phone, giving the computing platform more versatility outside of the Apple enclave.

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The elephant in the room is the iPad, which would need to stay with the iPhone and other devices within the iOS operating system world. Tim Cook thinks the tablet is the future of computing and it fits nicely within the walled garden as the real computers go off in another direction.

In other words, the Intel platforms are completely removed from Apple. All that stays is the ARM-based iPad.

Years ago, IBM pulled a similar stunt with its extremely popular ThinkPad laptops, selling the division to Lenovo. Such a drastic move from Apple, though, would upset the community. Instead, it should look to IBM's successful spin-offs, like Lexmark. This is the kind of thing that mature companies do, and I'm guessing that it's something Apple may be planning...because it's a good idea.