1. Apple hardware is so good is because it runs Mac OS X.

The PC hardware is a cut throat business. Any old PC is as good as nother. Except for Apple for course. To get that trademark Apple experience, you have no choice but to buy a Mac. The reason for this is that, for most people, the user interface is the computer. Hardware vendors like Sony have shown that simple hardware design alone is not enough to separate you from the rest of the pack; you have to own the OS.

2. Mac OS X is so good because it only has to run on Apple hardware.

It’s true, Mac’s rarely have problems with driver conflicts, registry corruption, or other ‘system rot’ that drive Windows users crazy. This is obviously a huge benefit for using a Mac but it’s only possible because Windows has to support thousands of hardware configurations while the Mac only has to support a few dozen.

If Mac OS X could run on any old Intel hardware, Mac OS X would eventually become just as fragile as Windows, eliminating one of its major benefits. (while costing a lot of money to boot.)

3. Apple is the Windows alternative, not a Windows option.

Apple is often defined as the only commercially viable alternative to Windows on the desktop. This positioning is a critical part of what attracts Apple’s current users to its machines. It’s also a big reason behind why Apple gets so much attention in the media.

If Apple became just another Windows vendor – even if they just offered it as an optional configuration – they would do incredible damage to their brand image. This is exactly what happened to Sun. Sun could have been known as the generic Windows server alternative – until they became just another Windows server option and lost their unique positioning. After that no one knew why they should prefer Sun over other vendors and their sales plummeted.

4. Even if they did offer Windows, most businesses still would never consider buying a Mac.

Let’s face it, the battle over market share has always been about business users. Business buy in bulk and they upgrade on a regular basis, so they make up the majority of the PC market. The only reason to actually switch to Windows is to give IT managers a reason to buy Macs instead of other PC hardware. The simple truth, however, is that will never happen no matter what Apple does.

To most IT people, Apple is the ‘renegade’. It is the company they go to when they have to buy “off spec” for the design department. Apple is the company that charges a premium for their hardware and costs a load more to support because their machines are so different.

In other words, for many IT managers, Apple is the enemy. How many of these IT managers will reevaluate this perception built up over 15 years just because Apple offers Windows? Not many.

5. The value of Windows developers is not what is used to be.

There was a day when people used to say Apple should switch to Windows because Windows had more developers. More developers meant more applications and more applications meant more reasons for people to buy your computer.

Today, however, most of the new and interesting applications are being written for the Web, and Web software runs anywhere you have a web browser. More and more, people expect to run whatever operating system they want and still be able to access their software. The value of a Windows developer is not what it used to be.

Boot Camp is a huge step forward for Apple. It is going to bring many more people over to the Mac who always longed to be here but were prevented by some old Windows software they could not abandon. However, Apple is still Apple. They still thrive on Thinking Different(ly). Don’t expect something like Boot Camp to change that anytime soon.