SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer Inc. and IBM formally announced yesterday their plan to build a personal computer that will run either company's software. But many experts remained skeptical about the companies' chances of dominating the computer industry unless they also eventually agreed to pursue a single software strategy.
"They actually need the same software on every machine," said Phil Lemmons, editor in chief of PC World magazine, a trade publication.
Mr. Lemmons noted that Apple continued to promote its Macintosh software, while IBM remained intent on pursuing its own OS/2 software, with each company's executives criticizing the other's approach.
"Right now each company is pointing at the other and saying, 'You have a flat tire,' " he said. "If they got together, they could build a great bicycle."
A number of computer industry executives have said that until the two companies form a common software strategy, they will be at a disadvantage in challenging the market dominance of computers that are based on Intel Corp.'s chips and that operate on software from Microsoft Corp.
Apple has been expected to license its Macintosh software to IBM and a number of overseas computer makers so they can develop machines to run the Macintosh operating system -- software that controls the computer's basic functions.
But at a news conference in Manhattan yesterday, an executive vice president of Apple, Ian W. Diery, would say only that the company, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., was in discussions with a wide range of computer makers to license the Macintosh operating system.
And when Mark Theilken, the IBM executive in charge of PC software, was asked whether IBM was planning to license Apple's Macintosh operating system, he declined to discuss anything but yesterday's hardware announcement. "I think I'll stick to the script today," Mr. Theilken said.
Yesterday's announcement of a jointly developed computer, which was expected, is the outcome of the extraordinary alliance between Apple and IBM in 1991, under which they agreed to develop with Motorola Inc. the Power PC chip, as well as embark on a series of joint software development projects.