“Apple Computer plans to announce Monday that it’s scrapping its partnership with IBM and switching its computers to Intel’s microprocessors, CNET News.com has learned. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said,” Stephen Shankland reports for CNET News.
“The announcement is expected Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, at which Chief Executive Steve Jobs is giving the keynote speech. The conference would be an appropriate venue: Changing the chips would require programmers to rewrite their software to take full advantage of the new processor,” Shankland reports. “IBM, Intel and Apple declined to comment for this story.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If true, Steve, you got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do! Jobs better turn the RDF up to 11 for his keynote. Hopefully, Intel has something in the “top secret room” that’s better than what they’ve currently got on the market. We can’t wait to see if Jobs allows “Intel Inside” stickers to be slapped on Macintosh cases. Note that the CNET article doesn’t state any specific type(s) of Intel processor(s) to which Apple will switch.
One very interesting aspect of all this, if it were to happen that Apple Macs use the same processors as the Wintel box assemblers, is that it would all but eliminate the “my PC is faster” argument and the real difference between Macs and Wintel PCs would be focused like a laser on what the real difference has been all along: the operating system. Obviously, to have the operating system as the main differentiator between, for example, a Dell PC running Windows or an Apple Mac running Mac OS X would highly favor Apple.
Also, would this open any doors for, say, Sony and/or HP to license and sell the “Apple Mac by HP” and/or the “Apple Mac by Sony” similarly to the “Apple iPod by HP?” Or would Apple ensure that Mac OS X would only run on Apple Macs?
Finally, with Apple less dependent on Mac hardware sales thanks to iPod, could this be the equivalent of Steve Jobs loading the “Mac OS X for x86” hydrogen bomb onto a bomber bound for Redmond? “Mac OS X for x86,” as in, buy it for $129 and load it onto your Dell or whatever instead of the stripped-down Windows XP SP3 currently code-named Longhorn? Moo.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
MacDailyNews to present live Steve Jobs’ WWDC Keynote coverage – June 06, 2005
Intel Inside Apple Macs? – June 04, 2005
Intel in Macs?! How’s Apple CEO Steve Jobs going to spin that switch? – June 04, 2005
Anticipation, rumors build ahead of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ June 6 WWDC keynote – May 27, 2005
Intel Exec: ‘We will never give up on Apple, we covet them as a design win’ – June 03, 2005
Apple really talking to Intel about WiMAX, not PowerPC to Intel processor switch – June 02, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 2005
Analysts: No ‘Intel Inside’ stickers on Apple Macs anytime soon – May 24, 2005
Did Apple plant ‘Intel Mac’ rumor to send IBM a message? – May 23, 2005
Analyst: Apple-Intel rumor ‘hogwash’ (today marks 11th month that Jobs’ promised 3GHz G5 is late) – May 23, 2005
Enderle: ‘If Intel gets Apple, it could make Intel look brilliant after the fact’ – May 23, 2005
Stocks extend rally on Apple-Intel report; Dow closes up 52 to 10,524; Nasdaq climbs 10 to 2,057 – May 23, 2005
Apple said to be considering switch to Intel chips for Macs according to Wall Street Journal – May 23, 2005
Apple shares rise on Intel Mac rumors – May 23, 2005
Intel adds FireWire 400 and 800 to latest motherboard – May 18, 2005
iPod success opens door to Mac OS X on Intel – March 04, 2004
…no way
Whoa……the world is spinning……say it ain’t so!
I guess we’ll all know on Monday.
Intel may have some new microprocessor up ther butt that we dont know about … windows go to IBM, apple goes to Intel… that would be funny a little
MDN Magic Word- effect as in- “what effect is this going to have on me if true”
Yes.
*wrings hands, calls BG on Windows Cell Phone Client Edition Plus 2005 beta.”
I’ll be bowled over if this is really true. This will require HUGE reinvestment by both consumer and developer if true. Yikes!
This better be wrong. Intel chips?! come on. If apple wanted to switch to x86 they should use AMD. Intel’s megahertz game has run out of steam and now their chips are getting slower and slower compared to the competition. The G5 creams the pentium 4’s. Everything will have to be totally rewrote. If Apple switches to intel, what’s to stop dell or someone else to put OS X on their junkey wintel boxes. Apple would not be able to survive if they were just a OS company. They will lose the tight integration they hve between their hardware and their software. This will be very bad if it is true.
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I’m too lazy to read the article (mostly ’cause I don’t buy it) but does it actually say that they are going to switch to x86 or Pentium chips? Perhaps Apple has contracted Intel to produce PowerPC chips. That’s the only way I can see this happening. It would be a HUGE mistake to support two processors.
Is it April 1st or something?
If this happens, its going to be a really hard sell for Apple, even to Mac fans. All those demonstrations of PowerPC vs. Intel are going to come back and haunt them.
I just can’t wrap my mind around this…
Mark my words…if this is announced Monday, I will personally run around our business building naked three times.
This is ridiculous and absurd and is just causing more skepticism later after seeing the stock bounce up and down over rumors. Soon, no one can take what is said seriously.
There is no way on this planet that Apple will dump IBM and switch to Intel unless there is some new product that runs on one of the low power cancelling chips.
Sorry, I posted this on the other news item, but it seems more appropriate here….
I think the fact the News.com is reporting this as a “scoop” makes the probability of a switch to Intel to be much higher than before. Whereas it was something like 1% before, I think the chances might be as high as 25% now.
Here’s what I think Apple might do. Apple will release a Mac that runs on an Intel processor – call it “Macintel.” It will be a low-cost, bare-bones design along the lines of the Mini.
This way, Apple’s core creative and scientific markets won’t rush to abandon existing Macs, leading to a collapse of revenues that we saw during the bad “Clone Wars” of the Amelio Era.
By being a low-end, low-cost machine that comes with iLife and Safari, Apple will have a completely functional machine that can compete for the corporate market. Apple would also license this design for manufacture by other companies, who would not be allowed to modify the design. That way, Apple maintains control over the hardware because this is a license to rebrand (think HP iPod), not a license to clone.
Furthermore, because the Macintel has an Intel chip for a brain, my guess is that Apple will unveil a secret Windows compatibility feature that allows you to run Windows apps “natively.”
This isn’t as farfetched as it seems. It would be similar to how Mac OS X runs X11 UNIX apps and how it runs Classic MacOS apps. Classic apps did not run in “emulation” like a Windows apps might run in VirtualPC, but the Classic Blue Box compatiblity layer execute Classic code natively on PowerPC. Running on an Intel chip, Apple can finally introduce the “Yellow Box” Windows compatibility layer that was first seen in developer demos of Rhapsody (the alpha of OS X).
So for a while, Apple will play with both PowerPC and Intel. Having an Intel-based Mac in the market will force IBM to ante up and perform dramatically better. The result is that BOTH PowerPC and Intel fans will benefit. And if Macintel fails to sell, it will finally shut up all those whiners and analysts who always say “I would buy a Mac if only….”
The important thing to remember is the huge amount of leverage this would give Apple against IBM. Having a prototype technology demonstration in the labs is one thing, but having a real product on the market that utilizes your competitors technology is quite another.
In the long term (3 to 5 years), I believe OS X has such a strong foundation that it will evolve to become hardware independent, running on Intel and PowerPC chips equally well (remember, even Microsoft at one time had Windows NT for PPC). In the future, a user can decide whether to buy an Intel Mac or PPC Mac based on his or her needs and budget.
what do you mean you can’t wrap your mind around it..
IT’S CNET!
What is Apples share of the PPC chip? Does the contract with IBM and/or Motorola allow them to go elsewhere for chips if the supplier cannot produce enough chips? And just what might Intel have up there sleeve if Steve planted a seed for a faster PPC type of chip?
Two things…
On “Is this true”: I’m pretty sure it is and that the leak is from Apple (an official leak), this is a standard marketing technique. No matter how bad the news, shock wears off over time. So, you release the news a couple days early, let it sink in and let the shock wear away, then on Monday Steve J. swoops in with a “reality-distortion field” speech that makes everything seem all right and they at least have a fighting chance of convincing people.
On “Intel Mac & PPC Mac”: Never gonna happen. Apple doesn’t have the resources to support two platforms for a sustained period of time and the consumer confusion over which software and hardware to buy would be more destructive than good and would rob Apple of its “easier to use” mantra. There’s a reason Win NT, OS/2, et al didn’t survive on other platforms.
Here’s the key passage from the News.com article:
“One advantage Apple has this time: The open-source FreeBSD operating system, of which Mac OS X is a variant, already runs on x86 chips such as Intel’s Pentium. And Jobs has said Mac OS X could easily run on x86 chips.”
Forget all your assumptions. The biggest barrier to an Intel-based apps would be the lack of apps. OS X is the greatest operating system in existence, but it’s useless if there are no apps. But what if the Intel-based Mac comes with:
iLife for MacOS X for Intel
Safari for MacOS X for Intel
Porting iLife and and Safari would be something Apple could easily do in secret in their Skunk Labs.
Then, what if MacOS X for Intel also has a compatiblity box that would allow you to run Windows apps (minus Windows) at about 85-90% native performance?
Can you see major corporations ditching all their Dells en masse, knowing that they have a virus-free, adware-free low-cost computer that can run their exisiting Windows apps? “Windows-free” becomes the best-selling feature of Mac OS X for Intel!
Well, after all the downplays and denials of the original rumor (especially by MDN), looks like reality comes first circle.
wow..this is one instance where I want the weekend to be over fast..lol
If this is true wonder if there’ll be a way to swap out the PPC chips in the future for those of us that laid down 3Gs CDN for their G5?
Holy Cow, Batman,
I am dazed and confused. The Riddler must be on the loose again.
F*** ME!! Hell has FROZEN over if this happens!! Thats why I switched in the first place, different, Winblows could not run on it. NOW!! I hope this is a BS!!
So not only is Apple going to play with both PowerPC and Intel, but third party developers are also going to have to play with both? Umm, yeah? Is Jobs deluded to the point that he thinks he’ll receive a standing ovation if he announces anything that remotely resembles Cnet’s article?
MDN magic word is “various” as in…Steve Jobs has displayed various symptoms of insanity in the past. But this one will have him commited
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Seems like good news now that people won’t get their cow ’til 2007.
As much as we loath the ‘Axis of Evil’: Intel, Dell (Hell) and M$, we have to accept the fact that they own the desktop market share. Apple has to port OS X to Intel compatible chips sooner or later to gain significant market share.
Newmanstein,
Can you post a QT video of your naked romp Monday for us?
Many thanks
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So I guess Ping-Pong balls now understand chocolate pudding?
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