“Given IBM was the beneficiary of the leaks we believe they are the most likely to have leaked the story and over the next several years will apply similar, and often increasing, opinion on this move in the hope that Apple will reverse its decision,” Rob Enderle theorizes for Technology Pundits.
Enderle scribbles, “With financial pressure increasing on Apple to execute and a likely sharp decline in Apple hardware sales prior to the new hardware hitting the shelves coupled with an already noted sharp decline in iPod sales…”
MacDailyNews Note: Truth break: Apple’s iPod sales are not “in sharp decline.” Goldman Sachs recently stated that iPod shipments are currently tracking in-line with its 5.35 million unit estimate this quarter. Apple sold 5.311 million iPod units during its fiscal 2005 second quarter ended March 26, 2005 and 4.58 million iPod units during its fiscal 2005 first quarter ended December 25, 2004. In its fiscal 2004 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2004, Apple sold 2.016 million iPod units.
Enderle continues, “Apple will be under an unprecedented amount of pressure to reverse itself but, given the lack of trust that was likely created by this move, that reversal, if it happens, will probably have an extremely limited result.”
“Regardless of that, over the next two years IBM is likely to place its considerable resources on forcing Apple to reconsider and reverse its decision. This type of approach will probably not have the desired effect if IBM is sourced as the instigator of this pressure. Intel will have to move to block this if they want to retain Apple and, of the x86 vendors, they remain the most powerful and arguably the most capable of doing this,” Enderle writes. “The battle between IBM and Intel for the hearts and minds of the Apple faithful will not only be interesting, it, for once, places Apple on Intel’s side.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As for Enderle’s anticipated “sharp decline” in Mac sales, there may well be a decline, but there is nothing that would stop us from purchasing a new Mac today. For years, software will be shipping as Universal Binary products. Which, simplified, means the CD or DVD contains both PowerPC and Intel versions of the application. For oddball developers (read: not mainstream) that fail to ship Universal Binary applications, Apple’s Rosetta will translate the PowerPC-only code of these applications on-the-fly for Intel-based Macs. There would be a performance hit for intensive apps, but any intensive app would offer a Universal Binary anyway. So PowerPC Mac owners will have native software for years and Intel Mac owners will have native software going forward and Rosetta translation for the odd Power-PC-only apps. Due to what we’ve seen regarding the relative ease of creating Universal Binaries, we’d say that PowerPC-only Mac apps will soon be a thing of the past.
If you need a Mac today or within the next year, hey, you need a Mac, so get it. It’s not going to stop working. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will run on both Intel and PowerPC Macs. Apple’s not going to stop PowerPC support for years. In all probability, by the time owning a PowerPC Mac ever becomes even a remote issue, you’ll long-ago have purchased a new Intel-based Mac.
