AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Dude, you're getting a Mac! Dell and Apple are now two peas in Intel's pod, which raises questions about servers.

One reason that Dell didn't make my short list of companies with vision is its lousy business decision to remain the lone first-tier player not to add AMD's processors to its server lineup. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems, among others, like Dell's decision fine. They know Dell's missing out on AMD's secret sauce. AMD's CPU line is so very manufacturer-friendly -- meaning that it's also profit-friendly, as system vendors evolve from model to model and reach into new markets, especially the higher-density value server market that AMD is certain to own.

Dell wants no part of this, choosing instead to cleave only unto Intel, and by gum, to stick to the idea …