“In a risky move that could further shrink its minuscule slice of the PC market, Apple Computer Inc. announced plans today to switch its Macintosh computers to the same Intel Corp. chips used in systems that run Microsoft Windows,” The Associated Press (AP) reports. “Apple, which for years suggested its users ‘Think Different,’ will join all other PC makers in using microprocessors built on an architecture that took root in 1981 and eventually turned Apple into a niche player.”
“By moving to Intel chips, Apple is abandoning the so-called PowerPC architecture that it developed with IBM Corp. and Motorola Inc. in the early 1990s,” AP reports. “Over the years, Apple touted PowerPC as more powerful than the processors that run Windows PCs, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs even comparing some Macs to supercomputers.”
“In the mid-1980s, the Mac captured as much as 10 percent of the overall PC market, he said. But when Apple switched from Motorola 68000 processors to PowerPC chips, the Mac’s share dropped to below 5 percent. When the Mac’s operating system later changed to OS X, it fell to below 3 percent,” AP reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Mac market share is currently growing at a rate of over three times the global PC market and more people use Macs than AP seems to realize or wants to accurately report. Like the AP’s recent iPod/Apple share price report, this article reads like a hit piece.
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Syracuse Post-Standard: 3 percent is a false stat; Mac holds ’10 to 12 percent of the market for PCs – August 27, 2003