“Over the weekend, the rumors of Apple switching from its PowerPC-based platform to some flavor of Intel chip kept growing. Perhaps these reports (or more likely the television crews camped out in Cupertino) caused apoplexy in the upper ranks as well. Or not,” David Morgenstern writes for eWeek.
Here are a few hard facts about the PowerPC vs. Intel case to consider:
• Apple pays less for its PowerPC processors than the cost of comparable Intel chips, and analysts say the cost is less than half as much for some models. Moving to Intel would hit Apple’s bottom line.
• The PowerPC G5 is a smaller, more efficient chip than the competition. The G5 has performance comparable to any current x86 chip, which is really all that’s necessary to persuade Mac fans to stay with the platform. Mac OS X trumps Windows any time, and all that’s needed is a machine that can hold its own against Wintel machines, not necessarily beat them.
Morgenstern writes, “According to Peter Glaskowsky, analyst for The Envisioneering Group, in Seaford, N.Y., the G5’s ‘superior system architecture allows its performance to grow faster, as we see with each new G5 release. The Pentium 4 isn’t showing that kind of headroom. IBM also has far more experience with dual-core design than any x86 vendor.’ Intel is more than a processor company. The rumors of a partnership could extend to other initiatives important to Apple, such as WiMax networking or PCI Express.”
Full article here.
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
Apple to switch to Intel chips starting in 2006 – CNET [updated] – June 03, 2005
Anticipation, rumors build ahead of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ June 6 WWDC keynote – May 27, 2005
Intel CEO Otellini: If you want security now, buy a Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC – May 25, 2005
Analyst: Apple-Intel rumor ‘hogwash’ (today marks 11th month that Jobs’ promised 3GHz G5 is late) – May 23, 2005
iPod success opens door to Mac OS X on Intel – March 04, 2004
Oh brother, I hope his speculations are true. I know his judgements are.
This is why I believe the rumor to be either totally false or misplaced. yeah Apple might be working with Intel, but it’s probably on some other project like Wimax
Has anyone ever stopped to consider that Steve Jobs knows A LOT that we don’t know yet? Maybe IBM has nothing in the pipeline and it’s time for Apple to abandon ship, but we don’t know yet. I’m quite sure that if they do indeed switch to Intel on Monday that there will be a compelling explanation as to why. Geez…let’s give Jobs just a little bit of credit here…
Let’s stop all the hand-wringing folks!
If (and big “if”) the C|net article is correct, having Mac OS X running on Intel x86 “compatible” architecture would be a HUGE boost to Apple market share. Windows XP SP3 (a.k.a. longhorn would be D.O.A.).
Why not have your cake and eat it: some Macs on PPC and others on x86.
Cheers!
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maybe Apple is going to make a Wintel box.
I have to agree with this, unless IBM were about to announce that they were not going to continue supplying to Apple it would make no sense. A Wimax airport card would be the logical place for apple to play.
the only place that an Intel Strategy would make sense is on the server side where there would be less applications to be rewritten. And then there would be the same chip supplier for xsan and xserve.
I can’t see the point in going x86 on the desktop or laptop side even g4 is good enough to be competitive in the cpu space in laptops
iCon and those in the know are probably rolling over in laughter from all the comments about this issue from the “journalist” and “experts” that really don’t know shit about what’s really going on.
Well, no matter what happens I will be sticking with the OS X platform but what the news is Monday will determine what (and how soon) I buy. I have been waiting for a G5 laptop for two years now and can wait no longer. I was all ready to go back to desktop land and get a Powermac G5. Now I don’t know what to think but it seems like I might be sent back to the drawing board on deciding what will be the right unit for me to buy. I definitely need more information – I hope the news Monday makes the choice easier rather than muddying the waters.
Business 2.0 is a great mag. Check out the latest issue for an article about IBM’s Cell and the direction they are going.
http://www.business2.com/b2/
I still think Apple and Sony have something up their sleeve. Can’t wait to see what Jobs has to say tomorrow.
Another Apple/Intel article from CNET:
http://news.com.com/IntelApple+coupling+could+woo+Hollywood/2100-7341_3-5732238.html?tag=nefd.top
Steve told me that what Apple plans to do is bring back the DOS Compatibility Card, although today that would be the XP Compatibility Card. Just a P4 or similar riding along inside a Mac box so you can run Winblows apps without emulation. Now wouldn’t that bring over some switchers?
Hey, we’re doing rumors here, right?
If you want to learn more about how and why the PowerPC architecture works so well, read this.
It’s a bit on the technical side, but good nonetheless.
From the above article provided by sg
“Right now, however, sources have not said Apple and Intel are working on these products. Instead, they have said Apple will adopt Intel chips in its PCs.”
Thats because Steve likes to keep things under-wraps. Although this deal has only recently been publicly announced… I think Apple and Intel already have products ready to be introduced. 20 hours to go….
I am sure there is something going on between Apple and Intel. Remember that Intel will now be putting FireWire 400/800 on all its mobos. There will be tit for tat.
But Apple ain’t switchin’ to x86 architecture.
How about 23 hours, 42 minutes. The Keynote starts at 10am PDT (1pm EDT).
I mean 23 hours, 47 minutes.
OSX is the key, as well as quality hardware standards, and I don’t know of a reason why that can’t be done on Intel.
ON 086, no, but what is next?
The greatest thing that could come down the road is that Apple could finally be supplied with enough chips to take advantage of the superiority of OSX.
Can that be done now? History says a resounding NO!
I am going to explode before monday. I swear to god.
MDN magic word: days, as in the hours feel like days leading up to this keynote
Intel will simply make PPC chips for Apple. Same chips, more capable vendor. Moto and IBM just could not produce results.
It has been a very bizarre weekend. Things are getting turned upside down.
The only way I can see OS X working on Intel PCs is if Apple takes advantage of the Yellow / Red box system. Basically that means that the part of the OS that we see and interact with is independent of the basic OS. Therefore the base system deals with the specific requirements of the hardware and the OS X sits on top of that. Commands from OS X to the hardware are therefore negotiated by the basic system without the need for hardware specific code in OS X.
I don’t know if that makes sense – but I thought that was one of the advantages of UNIX – that the GUI is independent of the base system.
Otherwise, I think Apple’s main interest with Intel is in media distribution. Wimax sounds likely plus Apple’s ability to effiiciently manage digital content and limit piracy.
Steve ain´t sayin´ nuthin´ on Monday…
about this processor situation anyway.
Apple continue to use IBM processors. Mac on intel makes absolutly no sense whatsoever. Steve Jobs basically said that they were not going to use Intel processors here:
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-05-23T195116Z_01_N23218517_RTRIDST_0_TECH-APPLE-INTEL-DC.XML.
sorry the correct link is here: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-05-23T195116Z_01_N23218517_RTRIDST_0_TECH-APPLE-INTEL-DC.XML
Apple is just flushing out a mole…
Create a rumor and follow the scent to the leak.
I doesn’t matter how awesome the PowerPC is. It doesn’t mean squat if IBM can’t deliver the goods to Apple.