"Hello, Bill? This is Steve..."

According to this article, Apple Computer (i.e. Steve "Black Turtleneck" Jobs) has been approached by three of the largest computer manufacturers about licensing OS X.

"Who are these three," you ask? Well, let's look into this a bit. At first, I misread the article and mistakenly thought that it said "one of the three biggest" but upon closer inspection I did, in fact, stand corrected. So, let's get on with it...

The three largest computer manufacturers in the U.S. are Dell, HP, and Gateway/eMachines. Dell is not a good candidate as they are competing with Apple on just about every front: they market their own answer to the iPod, they are pushing their education market sales, and they just don't fit the "cool" moniker that Apple has. HPaq would be a very logical choice: they are pushing heavily into the entertainment industry, they recently started marketing their rebranded iPod, and they don't really compete with Apple in the software market. Gateway/eMachines just doesn't fit in with Apple's image at all.

Let's look at the players on the international field. IBM, Fujitsu, Sony (who really isn't a "largest"), and Acer (I didn't know they were still around). IBM would probably be a good candidate as they are already committing to shipping alternative OSs on some of their boxes. Sony is only included in this list because they are the only PC manufacturer that fits Apple in their approach to the market and their style. I have no clue about Fujitsu or Acer, but for all I know they could be approaching Apple.

If this report is true, I would hope Apple doesn't miss the train this time around too. Refusing to license nearly killed them. I hope they learned their lesson...