“Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s reaction to Apple Computer’s decision to use Intel processors can be summed up in two words: ‘What’s changed?’ Speaking Monday at Microsoft’s TechEd customer conference, Ballmer questioned whether Apple’s move to Intel for its PCs changes the competitive dynamic between Microsoft and Apple,” Martin LaMonica blogs for CNET. ‘Will there be more device drivers because of this? No, Apple has their device model–we have ours. Will there more hardware manufacturers that build Apple machines other than Apple? That’s a whole business model change. No reason to believe so,’ he said. ‘Frankly, if people wanted to do that, they could have been buying parts from IBM. What changed?’ Ballmer also suggested that the chip change could reduce the number of applications available on Mac OS.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ballmer has “no reason to believe” there will more hardware manufacturers that build Apple machines? What about Dell, HP, Sony, Toshiba, Acer, etc.? Jobs don’t need no stinking machines, if he wished, all he’d need to do would be to sign deals; Mac OS X already runs on the world’s PC hardware. If Jobs did this, Mac OS X’s drivers (and applications) would increase, Windows would hemorrhage operating system market share, and Ballmer would be out of Microsoft within months, if MS can even move on large issues that quickly anymore. Of course, Ballmer knows all of this, but he can’t show it in public. In our opinion, Microsoft has been floundering under Ballmer ever since he became CEO. The longer he stays around ignoring Apple and presiding over OS rewrites that easily strip, but never ship, the worse things will get for Microsoft.
Balmer is balmy!
This is a time of uncertainty for Apple, much like the 90’s shift to the PowerPC. However, Apple has the advantages of a mature and modern OS and a highly popular iPod line to help maintain market share in addition to previous experience with fundamental CPU and OS transitions. MacOS X also runs natively on Intel due to a proactive effort by Apple over the last five years.
Risks must be taken in order to take advantage of new opportunities and to position the company for future growth. Apple will be stronger in the area of personal computers in two years than it is now.
The word of the day in Redmond must be “Sh*t”.
The only difference between what´s inside a dell computer and an apple computer will be the oS.
Will people want to pay the extra price for the Apple intel box?????
Check out ArsTechnica’s picture of Balmer auditioning for KISS. They couldn’t have picked a better person to lead M$
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />(http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2005/6/6/469)
Why do all the macheads thinks this is bad news for Microsoft???
If it was the other way around – all the Peecee weenies and Microsoft shifting to the PowerPC chip would that have been good news for Apple? I don´t think so.
“what changed?” My sentiments exactly! With many people laying an egg over Apple’s decision to move to Intel chips, I don’t really see how this could hurt Apple (in the long run). I have to think that OS X will run more efficiently than Windows on like machines because of all the backward compatibility and other crap in Windows that makes it blotware. I also think that Apples switch to Intel will be a huge windfall for Mac gamers because of the optimization issues that will be simplified when both PCs and Macs use like hardware. I also believe that PCs and Macs will use the same video cards (at the same price), so that will also level that playing field, too.
Certainly hardware sales will take a hit, but I think Apple has taken many great steps to make this whole transistion work. With Rosetta and the dual chip biniary capabilities in Xcode, Apple has assured a reasonable life span for both old hardware and old software that comsumers may own.
I’m beleive that Apple knows what it is doing and why. It is well known that IBM is holding Apple back, and even though the PowerPC platform may “have legs”, it’s was up to IBM to make them walk, which they failed to do. All the potential the PowerPC had for becoming a better CPU has been squandered my IBM since they are not developing it into a better product.
Actually I suspect that Steve Bullmer is doing a monkey dance of joy right now because for him at least the delay in Apple being able to eat into XP market share before Longhorn seems to have gone up in a puff of smoke… and increasingly that is where his job would go if it wasnt for the fact that if that happened the general press would have to remove their rose tinted glasses and assess things at Microsoft with a sense of reality.
Just ask Sony how making money in the short term while making bad decisions and dropping back in inovation and not adopting superior technology for political/marketing reasons has repercussions in the longer term, even if it has to hit the hacks/experts in the face before they actually see it- Emporors clothes syndrome or what? This may just keep his retirement plans on track for a little while longer I’m afraid.
He’s right. Nothing changed. They still have thousands of viruses, we have none. Nope, nothings changed.
“Why do all the macheads thinks this is bad news for Microsoft???”
It IS bad news for Microsoft because of the many PC tinkerers out there. Their next box may be a beautifully styled Mac that can boot into Windows if he gets scared, or boots into MacOS X to experiment. Once he is in MacOS X and able to run Windows apps (via any non-Apple source) without the Windows OS itself he might decide to stay. Slowly he changes his apps to MacIntel just like the rest of us. No viruses, Spotlight for his Windows docs, clean interface, Dashboard, iLife, etc. No, Microsoft and Dell need to be very afraid but not for 1-2 years…
Add Apple designing & shipping MacIntel motherboards to Sony & HP with Apple/Samsung displays and Microsoft becomes an appendix to the PC industry, not the controller – easier to excise!
Two words…monkey boy!
I expect these words will come back to haunt Balmer. But his question deserves an answer.
What’s changed?
Steve, in a short time when you sit down in front of your Windows version of Word you will realise that whilst you have been AWOL on extended donut leave, Apple have cleverly manoeuvred themselves, their OS and their hardware to make that very same Application you are looking at ‘platform independent’. The choice will then be yours as to whether you open it into a buggy, virus-ridden, bloated version of Windows… or whether you simply launch it directly into a clean, lean, rock-solid OS X. Same choice for ALL your existing Applications – all you need is an inexpensive MacIntel box. Oh – and if you REALLY feel life isn’t worth living without all the fun of running your Apps through Windows – your MacItel box will do that too.
The hole in your donut is about to tighten.
iPods are cheaper than the competitors.
How and why? Discuss.
Apple has learnt a lot.
Balmer is an egotistical ignoramous. Keep ignoring the fact that Apple has solid plans with solid product lines and the worst thing Microsoft could have dreamed for a solid OS that is safe, fast, and secure and now can run on both the Power PC and x86. He can make all the dumb comments he wants but I know he and Bill are very worried and the only way they can shrug it off with the media is by making dumb comments like they have been. The reason they can only do that is because they have no solid plans for the future. There new OS looks like an XP update that is featureless.
“Will people want to pay the extra price for the Apple intel box?????”
You kidding me? People will want to buy when they can get a Mac Mini running a P4 2.8 (RETAIL currently under $150 and dropping) chip for the same $500-600.
hmmm…slow ass G4 1.42 or P4 2.8. Decisions. The P4 2.8 is no speed demon but it sure beats G4’s.
Sorry if this is a littel off topic, but,
QUESTION: What will this mean for Microsoft’s Virtual PC? Since it’s an intel processor emulator isn’t most of the code kind of redundant now? Can it be reworked to run windows software faster? Or is the whole thing in the crapper? Interesting to find this out.
Bullmer is probably thinking: even if Cougar outdoes Longhorn (he is no blind Mac fanboy, so he can also see the sides about Longhorn that actually are better than OSX Tiger. Don’t be stupid by going in denial. It is that way. MacOS improves every year, Win every five years. The good thing about Longhorn slipping back even further is of course that Cougar can contain surprises Longhorn can never counter in time) it’ll be a long time before your average user understands that. MS/Windows is going to be around for a long time yet.
But:
As others have said: switching will become rampant, once people can multiboot to OSX and Win. As for OSX only running on Mactel: better would be, if OSX would install on anything intel. The more people see it, the more people will switch to it. The few pirated copies out there don’t kill a company. Ask… Microsoft. How many pirated copies of XP out there? A lot, but MS is still number one by quite a margin. I would not be surprised by Apple slipping ‘hacked non Mactel OSX’ versions into the P2P circuit.
I do thereby ignore the design element of the hardware, of course. I couldn’t give a toss if a Mac would look like a grey shoebox, as long as it runs OSX and finally comes CHEAP!
It seems to me that the media and other folk assume that a move by Apple to Intel processors means Apple is making a PC compatible box that can run Windows. I believe this is completely wrong. I believe that all this means is that a Mac will use an Intel processor rather than PowerPC but otherwise still be a Mac at the hardware level. There are huge diffferences between a Mac and a PC other than the processor and OS (memory layout, interrupt hardware, clocks). Again, I really don’t believe this means Windows will run on future Intel powered Macs. That wouldn’t make sense.
He may not be the smartest ape in the pen, but he’s no idiot.
He now knows that supporting Apple with Office etc. is no longer just an issue of avoiding antitrust action (not that it matters with the Bush DOJ anyway).
For years, MS has had the Office knife to Apple’s throat. Ballmer now knows Apple has a knife to their throat too.
“Don’t make us use this.”
If MS ever drops Office, expect OS X to be sold to PC owners within weeks.
I don’t think that Windows will run on the Mactel boxes, but I do believe that Apple will create a compatibility box in OS X to run Windows applications. This may be its own creation or a version of Virtual PC that eliminates the need for chip emulation and merely handles the BIOS and hardware hooks that a Windows environment needs.
You know if they have been running OS X on secret Mactel boxes in Apple HQ, they have done this as well.
Being someone who is stuck developing Windows software at work, I would love to have a Mac at home that could run my Windows tools at full speed so I didn’t have to suffer with a Dell box.
Kevin, Michael –
‘After Jobs’ presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. “That doesn’t preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will,” he said. “We won’t do anything to preclude that.”
However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers’ hardware. “We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac,” he said.’
from c|net
http://news.com.com/Apple+throws+the+switch,+aligns+with+Intel+-+page+2/2100-7341_3-5733756-2.html?tag=st.next
I think this is all peachy
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> Look at the flexibility Apple will have. They can choose from four fabs (IBM, Moto, AMD, and Intel) with two architectures depending on what their “exact” needs are for any upcoming device. They are taking the whole CPU issue out of the equation and going more the consumer electronics route where you don’t know what’s running inside and don’t care, just like the iPod.
Quintox: “The only difference between what´s inside a dell computer and an apple computer will be the oS.”
So let me get this straight: As of today, there are only two differences? The OS and the CPU chip? Funny, I thought there was a lot more to the Mac design than that.
Yeah, right, pop out the PPC and put in an Intel and suddenly OH NOEZ!! TEH MAC MAGIC SI GOEN!!!!!11
The Ballmer era is funny.. salesman.
Try talking about software or innovation with this guy and he just turns beet red and runs away. What a visionary.
Re “MDN take:”
Jobs has unequivocally asserted that his software will run only on Apple hardware. Okay; but still the question remains, was he truthful… or was this merely “posturing” during the incipiency of a new deal, until the waters have been fully tested?
If the latter is true, then I would have some quite different conjectures to make in regard to what’s behind Apple’s shift from IBM to Intel.
For those who are breathing and have eyes, the shadow of doubt lingers in the background of Mr. Jobs’ decision to go with X-86. For instance, one SHOULD wonder just how much money changed hands (under the table, of course) between Microsoft and Apple.
What’s that… you say I’m crazy? Sure I am, my friends, and I’m willing to fight to stay this way! — But read on, if you aren’t one of Apple’s or Microsoft’s yes-man toadies, and see what I’m driving at.
Look; it doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to comprehend the fact that people in Job’s and Balmer’s positions are interested more in wealth and power than in altruism and the fair treatment of loyal clients.
Furthermore, no great intelligence quotient (a 92 will do…) is needed to recognize what will likely happen to Linux when Apple software can run universally in X-86 boxes made by a plethora of manufacturers!
This cuts through the Gordian Knot both for Balmer and Jobs, as it gets the Linux “monkey” of increasing competition to Microsoft’s (endangered) server market off Balmer’s back, whereas for Jobs it means a giant (personal) cash infusion from Microsoft and/or Intel (a long-time peripheral affiliate of MS) — plus the removal of competitor Linux from continuing It’s annoying advances in the Open Source market… advances that compete with both Apple AND Microsoft.
So, in effect this shift to Intel is a potential win-win situation, with Balmer and Jobs coming out smelling like roses… and Linux’ ears pinned so far back that even surgery would prove ineffective.
What’s not for Apple and Microsoft to like about that?