Apple gives its tumbs-up to WindowsXP on its Intel-based Macs. Here's why this could be a really big deal.

Apple has officially agreed to allow users to install and run Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. (More: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4)

A tool called “Boot Camp” lets Windows XP and programs for the platform to run on the iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini easily. Used to be that this was pure speculation and the stuff for hardy nerds to mod about. In fact, Apple formally stated that its next Mac OS X operating system release called Leopard will have the dual-OS technology built-in.

A bunch of questions immediately come into the fore:

1. Why would they allow such a thing?

2. Wouldn’t that just saturate Macs with Windows?

3. Why oh why would anyone want to run Windows on a Mac?

4. Will Windows take over Macs? (WaPo: "Good news for Microsoft: It's just gained access to a new base of customers who need to pick up their own copy of Windows XP")

5. Will Macs take over Windows?

6. Is Paris Hilton Really Playing Mother Theresa in an upcoming movie?

Anything can happen, but knowing Steve Jobs and company, one wouldn’t be wise to bet against them, especially in lieu of their recent run of successes that gave them the vibrant glow and aura that requires you to cover your eyes or go blind.

As it turns out, this may be Apples ploy to finally do something it has never succeeded in doing before: create a Trojan Horse and finally tap into the Windows market.

How, you may ask?

Well, Bunky, look at it this way. History has shown that people continue to blame Apple for its dwindled share in the past couple decades because it refused to license its superior operating system in the same way Microsoft had done.

There are many flaws to this argument of course, but it nevertheless stands mightily to this day, and other factors play into a similar vein as well.

But times change, and with change comes evolving battle plans. And Apple may be on track with the right one in this case. Look at it this way. Now that Apple runs on Intel processors, it can take advantage of the same arguments that have served the Windows camp very well:

1) Intel is the undisputed leader in microprocessors, no matter how the blips caused by AMD’s recent surge may try to dampen that fact

2) IBM’s PowerPC chips were chronically unable to meet demand, leading Apple to fall on its face due to lack of supply more than a few times. Now with the Xbox using such chips, the risk of running out of supply was even higher. Ergo, switching to Intel ensures better availability, and supply ceases to be a problem once and for all

But while the above is only about supply and a mere part of the equation, the bigger benefit could be this:

3) Here’s the strategy: Encroachment.

Everyone agrees that the MacOS and its superb branding is the real driving force behind peoples’ perception and desire to have a Mac.

Well, now they don’t have an excuse to not have one (okay, save only price perhaps, but that’s another story), because on an Intel-based machine, they can finally run both native apps and Windows programs as well.

But doing this only allows Windows to be run alongside the MacOS, which may endanger its hold on the market. In which case, we ask, what “hold on the market?”

But the clincher is this:

Who cares if people run the MacOS or Windows on their Macs?

First of all, Mac zealots won’t bother with Windows programs. But conversely, Windows users are known to salivate for a taste of the big Mac. Now they can.

Not only will this give them a “free” taste of the Mac with the relative safety of the platform they’re used to, but more likely than not it’s highly probable a lot will switch and stay with the Mac.

But most of all? It brings us back to what was said first:

Who cares if people run the MacOS or Windows on their Macs?

The point is simply this: the battle has already shifted. The War of Which OS Will Rule has already been won. Microsoft is the undisputed champ.

But now, Apple in the unique position to commoditize Windows in the same way that Windows commoditized the PC and everything else: with Apple’s hardware.

That is, it doesn’t matter what OS you run, because the new focal point, revenue-wise, isn’t the operating system, but the absolute control of its proprietary hardware. One of the few things that Apple controls that is unassailable even to Microsoft.

Who cares if you’re running MacOS or Windows on a Mac? Apple certainly doesn’t, because as long as you’re buying their Macs, they’re making money and getting share.

And that, folks, is what it’s all about. The concept turned inside-out, upside-down.

Whereas Windows commoditized PCs so that it doesn’t matter what hardware brand you choose, you can always run Windows programs for it, these days it’s the other way around: it doesn’t matter what OS or program you’re using, you may now run it on a Mac. (Remember that when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he terminated the first and last licensing program giving Apple absolute control on its vertical platform.)

In doing so, whatever you use, you’re paying Apple to run it on Macs, and those sneaky little devils make money no matter what you choose, no matter what you do.

If enough people buy into this, this may just be the silver bullet that (no matter how slightly) could marginalize Microsoft’s stranglehold in a way the Linux is doing in the enterprise space.

Not likely? Maybe, but they said the same thing about Apple's chances of surviving when Steve Jobs returned in '97.

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