“The bull case for Apple over the past year has been that booming sales of iPod music players will create a ‘halo effect’ that will lead to higher demand for the company’s Macintosh computers,” Troy Wolverton writes for TheStreet.com.
Wolverton writes, “While Apple has seen an uptick in Macintosh sales in recent quarters, that momentum may be slowed by the recent announcement that it is switching the processor at the heart of its computers from the PowerPC line produced by IBM and Freescale Semiconductor to chips made by Intel. Although Apple offered valid reasons for the switch, it could lead customers to delay computer purchases or choose rival systems based on Microsoft’s Windows operating system.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, Mac users find that latter option hilarious. Windows-only users, however, would miss the joke. Mac users aren’t going to choose Microsoft Windows based on Apple’s processor choice. It’s the OS, stupid (and the Apple Mac-only applications). The full article gives various viewpoints, including one we agree with: Mac sales will may slow in the short term, but Apple’s core Mac business will be better in the long term.
“More than even the processor, more than even the hardware innovations that we bring to the market, the soul of a Mac is its operating system and we’re not standing still.” – Steve Jobs, WWDC 2005 Keynote, June 6, 2005
MDN “Mac users aren’t going to choose Microsoft Windows based on Apple’s processor choice.”
I am a Mac owner and I bought an Intel computer with Windows inside.
Works fine.
Amen to that Steve.
“More than even the processor, more than even the hardware innovations that we bring to the market, the soul of a Mac is its operating system and we’re not standing still.”
-Steve Jobs, WWDC 2005 Keynote, June 6, 2005
Yes, Steve, twist and shade it just a bit differently to fit your needs. Before PowerPC was king, Intel sucked….but know that you have no other choice Intel is King, PowerPC sucks.
When Intel doesn´t work then it will be AMD is the greatest….and we brainwashed macheads will bow down and kiss every word that the Steve mutters.
As a developer of Mac OS X software, I think the switch to Intel will be a good one. I know that I will have to do the work (minimal I hope) to get my app running on Intel Macs before they debut next year but Apple has made that process pretty easy. The folks who may have problems are some of the bigger developers like Adobe who may be using dev environments other than XCode.
Corr,
Just curious, what were your needs to choose a Win platform over mac?
so what exactly are u saying corr?
“choose rival systems based on Microsoft’s Windows operating system”
——
I might do that. And monkeys might fly out of my butt!
First post! Schwing!
The momentum will be slowed because Mac buyers WANT the fast new Intel chips! Not because they don’t want them!
And then in half a year the chips we want will be here, and sales will pick up again–and skyrocket, because switchers will love the change.
freakin’ hilarious
I’m not worthy… of first post.
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Analysts = Idiots
Begone troll.
PowerPC was faster. Really. No brainwashing there.
We’d only be brainwashed if Apple stayed with PPC and made us NOT accept that it won’t be faster anymore.
But Apple’s NOT saying that, and we do accept that times change–we’re changing from the fastest chips… to the fastest chips!
Now, Windows users on the other hand… THAT’S brainwashing
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Look, once upon a time, buggy whips were important for everyone to own who had a horse and buggy.
Now, not so much.
The AltiVec instruction set and RISC architecture of the PPC made it great. But as time has progressed, the cost of accelerating the speed at low wattage out weighed the benefits of the technology.
So we move to Intel.
The CICS architecture isn’t as efficient as RISC and doesn’t perform as well in multi-processor environments as RISC, and without AltiVec instructions, graphics aren’t as fast – but the clock cucles in the x86 architecture are way faster per watt than PPC can muster with the amounts of R&D available.
So we go with VHS over BetaMax.
It’s okay. VCRs didn’t crumble. Personal Computers won’t either. Perhaps the best and brightest from IBM/Motorola/Apple who worked on PPC and now find themselves with a much smaller to-do list will head over to the Intel campus and inspire some innovations.
My “MDN Magic Word” is LOVE
Yeah, I’m holding off purchasing… but only to see if someone at Apple panics and drops the top G5 tower from $3K to say $2500… or less. I will be buying a top of the line G5 before the summer is over. (This dual 800 G4 is just to slow now for the new video apps.) I just would feel too stupid if there is a big price drop, due to slow sales, and I wasn’t patient enough to wait. Anyone hear anything about new G5’s or price reductions?
Buffalo,
Steve is above all, a salesman. He’s the good kind, mind you. The no haggle, no hassle kind. You either want what he’s selling or you go to another lot.
Even Henry Ford said “You can have any color you like. As long as you like black”.
How many Lexus’ do you see that are nothing more than a Toyota LandCruiser with a leather package and different badge and a $10,000 higher price tag?
Steve is privy to roadmaps and production projections that we little folk have no concept of. He has a better understanding of where the industries are going. Apple is in a much different place now than they were when they were promoting the switch to IBM. They have a lot more leverage and hopefully Intel is sitting on some technologies that the Windows world just isn’t ready to embrace.
I personally have faith in Steve’s foresight. I’m also skeptical of Intel but, I really have no choice right now. I’m hoping for the best and expecting no less from Apple.
I will be buying a Windows laptop soon (even though I already have a Powerbook G4) – I have software (diagnostic imaging PACS software) for which there is no adequate MacOSX solution, nor (in spite of the many requests by other radiologists, who generally prefer Macs for home use) are there any plans to produce any.
btw, I would like to mention that while I have been using Macs since 1984 (and the Lisa and other Apple’s before that) build quality lately has been awful. I have sent back an airport base station, both my Powerbook (twice) and my G5 for work within 2 weeks of purchase, and the one person I have switched to the Mac has had his Powerbook in twice and his iPod replaced twice. And that’s everyone I know who has bought Apple products recently (100% flaw rate in my small experience). I’m curious to see if the Dell will fare better.
MW – “island”, as in No man is one.
Analysts are idiots!
Why are they not writing articles about how Microsofts Xbox sales will suffer until the Xbox 360 debuts later this year.
Or Sony PS2 sales will suffer until PS3 is released next year.
Sales for Macs are not going to slow because of the switch to Intel. They are going to slow because the “next” generation of Macs will not be debuting till next year. It would have been the same scenario had Steve announced that the next PPC chip or G5 powerbook wasn’t going to ship until next year.
I can’t imagine what it is about the processor that could drive someone away from the best computing experience on earth in OS X and toward the ‘train wreck’ know as Windows.
I seriously doubt that Microsoft’s trouble getting Longwait out the door is because they are really trying to produce a polished product. They’ll be lucky to meet their most recently delayed deliery date, that I doubt they’ll be able to invest any time to fine-tuning. Besides, when has Microsoft said, ‘look, we can’t deliver the great products we want to give you with our current partners, so we are going to do whatever it takes to get there’? Microsoft doesn’t do that because they’re to busy looking out for their partners, not the customer.
Microsoft has never been about delivering quality, it been about controlling the market place and what PC users see and do with their PC. Longhorn is not so much an operating system, as it is a tool they leverage to control consumers PC’s. That strategy’s paid off big for MS (no thanks to the anti-trust lawsuit THEY LOST!), but it the PC users who have to pay the price. PC users get MS formats and service shoved down their throat, while Windows does everything they can (illegally or whatever) to lock others out. These areas of format control is the real area MS is putting their efforts into longhorn. That’s why they just drop consumer features one after the other from Longhorn, because they can’t afford to drop developement of format leveraging systems, but couldn’t care less about the customer.
Apple took a lesson from MS and learned that to control a market, you need to control the platform. That is why the iPod and iTunes will not support wma unless the time comes when they have to. iTunes and iPod are a huge pain in MS’s a**. It looks like Bill and Co. don’t like the taste of their own medicine. Steve said lets fight fire with fire, and I support that on that, even though it honestly does limit consumer choice, it seems to be the only way to level the playing field with Microsoft. Windows=stifle technology
Yeah, right. This guy goes out and finds whaever analyst is willing to tell his side of the story, pretend to find those on the other said, and then draw the conclusion he’d decided to draw before even looking into it.
The Street? Please. If this is their idea of reporting, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh, Matt Druge, Carl Rove or Art Bell!
Ladies and Gentlemen, the switch to Intel was motivated in large part by the bottleneck Apple engineers found when moving the G5 into the existing PowerBook enclosure!
Remember, for the first time EVER, laptop sales exceeded those for desktops industry-wide last year . . . so Steve had no choice but to save THAT line of machines for the future of the company.
This was TRULY a no-brainer!
Buffalo
You are a retard. We “macheads” don’t just take anything anyone feeds us and trust it. That’s the reason we have Macs in the first place. We are intelligent enough to understand what is a better solution. We are picky. We want and expect the best.
We KNOW the PPC RISC has been a better platform in the past.
We KNOW that the performance has begun to lag.
We KNOW that Apple has made great choices on the direction of the platform in recent years.
We are smart enough to trust the vision of those who have given us so many great products to work with over the years
We are NOT just following along blindly as you seem to suggest.
If you knew anything about the platform you’d know this and I wouldn’t have to explain it to you.
And yes, its the OS stupid. End of discussion.
With all this talk of slowing of sales in the next 12 mths (which happens EVERYTIME we are expecting something new from Apple – who hasn’t held out waiting for a new model, or OS??) the one thing that gets forgotten is that one the switch happens, there will be many Mac users who will buy one “just because”. I know I’ll find a justification for one – even though I will have bought a G5 iMac sometime before then. (Hmmm? Maybe for the kids..)
I don’t see any Mac user switching to Windows because Mac are switching to Intel but not for 12 mths. That’s ridiculous. If they have reason to switch to Windows they will, they don’t need an inane reason like that.
The writers who write this drivel seem to think that the Mac on Intel will essentially be a Windows box. I don’t think they get it that it will still be a non-Windows OS , running on these Mactels.
So it’s about the OS not the processor – and these guys just don’t get it.
When hell freezes over will I choose a PC over a Mac. Who’s the maroon that wrote this piece of crap.
Yes, and people, upon hearing that the home they were contemplating buying will have a new heating system installed, might choose instead to move into a rat infested slum hovel with no locks on the doors. But I kinda doubt it.
For those who don’t know, AMD runs rings around Intel in pure speed and not to mention heat and power consumption.
As for the above mentioned article, nothing works better to get your name out then writing something really stupid .
Why do we even bother?
Over the last 7 months I have purchased iMac G5, secondhand TiBook, as well as eMac and iMacs for other family members (plus 4 iPods) – the failure rate? ZERO. NIL. NOTHING.
(My 5 year old G3 clamshell stopped working though – but that was because I had ignored it and locked it in a cupboard and it wasn’t happy at that…
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I just helped a newbie buy a Mac, and though I warned him of the chip change it didn’t even enter into his thinking. For the vast majority of customers it’s a non-issue.
If Apple had said they were going with IBM’s CELL to help their roadmap, but it would require a recompile or emulation, with no Classic support but run x86 code faster we’d be over the moon. Well this is what they’ve done, but with Intel.
Buy based on today’s needs people, not tomorrow’s wishes…
My Prediction is, that the only PC company that’ll have OSX on their machines, will be HP. They probably struck a deal back when they started licensing the HP iPod. I’m sure as soon as they can fix it, so that other company’s can’t use it on their machines, they’ll start shipping it. HP was the only company that had any faith in Apple & openly admitted it & admired their products.
write ANYTHING to fill pages to garner hits to sell advertising
THAT should answer a few questions.
If IBM isn’t going to put the resources into making the PPC chip better what other options did Apple have? The Sony Cell chip. They didn’t like it. Also why confuse the mass computer buying customers with a new chip. Beat Microsoft/Dell etc. at their own game. I think it’s a great solution at least for this situation. Ten years from now who knows what’s next.
i agree with “justified”.
this… “analyist” guy couldn’t find his own ass in a phone booth if he used BOTH hands.
Grrrilla.
If there’s a need for an app and you’re not the only one who needs it, why don’t YOU make it and reap the profits?
You might also not that this Try Wolverton person didn’t write alot of this article. Some obvious copy/paste work there.
“Analysts have generally praised Apple’s decision to go with Intel. The move promises to lower Apple’s costs, which helps its computer become more price-competitive with rival Windows-based systems. And the move should help the company produce faster and more competitive notebook computers, demand for which is outpacing desktop systems.”
I’ve only read that about 50 times since Jobs’ keynote.
I wonder at what point does all this “processor speed” stuff even matter anymore? My G4 Mac mini can do anything I want faster than I could possibly need it.
We used to run 60 mhz Power PC chips just fine and got all of our work done. Sure it’s much faster now, but really, how much faster do you want things? Now it’s a big deal that AMD is faster than Intel blah blah blah.
Who cares? As long as OS X runs on it as fast as it does now, it doesn’t matter. Besides, everyone acts like they know what Intel will have ready 12 months from now (an eternity in computer time) for Apple to use. You can’t compare a Intel-based Mac to anything since it doesn’t even exist yet…
And can we stop calling the new Macs “Macintels” or “Mactels” or whatever. We didn’t call them “MacPPCs” or “MacFreescales” or “MacIBMs.”
Let’s see, Windows users tried Linux because it ran in x86 boxes. So now that there will be Intel-chipped Macs, Mac users will now suddenly abandon the Mac platform? If MacIntels run Windows as well as OS X, I see the migration TO the Mac from Windows. The switcher has their investment protected.
Now if “lisa” will only understand that PPC Macs are not suddently worthy for the trash can and will be running new software titles for years to come…
“I wonder at what point does all this “processor speed” stuff even matter anymore? My G4 Mac mini can do anything I want faster than I could possibly need it.”
Try running the new QT movies on my 800mhz iMac. Its too slow, and appears more like a slide show than a movie. If allo you want is Internet and e-mail, then you don’t need the faster processors. If you work in video, photography, programming, or anything else that needs to render or compile, then you need the fastest possible processor.
I have not become a brainwashed Mac user yet, but I am smart enough to know that jobs hasn’t lead Apple astray since his return to the company. I trust this move. Someone earlier said that Steve is privy to Intel information that we are not. That is totally true. I trust this decision, even though I had to go through this thought process to get here.
My 800 should last me until the Mactels come out. Then I will get a new Mac. As I’ve said before, if I NEEDED a new Mac, I’d go get one. But I should beable to wait on the new ones for just home use. I do have to tell you that all of this speculation is making me drool. The possibility of a PowerMac running twin dual-core processors is very exciting. The possibility of a PowerBook running a dual-core processor is equally exciting. The possibility of Intel and Mac leaving the x86 desogn behind in 6 or 7 years has me planning my computer purchase after the next computer purchase.
Bring back the Amiga!!!!
Um….I don’t think so bub!!!
http://homepage.mac.com/rossetantoine/osirix/Index2.html
Free open source PACS software for OS X
The real Sputnik has now been identified. It’s Troy Wolverton. The writing style is for both is the same!
These MacTel machines would have to have lots extra compared to run of the mill PC’s if Apple is going to try to sustain their pricing structure. I’m hoping that Apple does not discontinue the use of Open Firmware. I’d hate it if firewire target disk mode were removed from future systems.
Please forget the second “is” in the above.
Maybe you should spend more time on Google looking for the software you need and less time dreaming about the Dell junk you are about to waste money on.
http://www.idoimaging.com/cgi-bin/imaging/program.pl?ident=116
And if you still insist on getting a windows based laptop, DO NOT BUY DELL, it is cheap commidity garbage. Get an HP/compaq.
Here is another:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/mac/13786
Another pin headed mind fart from Mr.
Corr.
I bought a new iMac two weeks ago. 20″ G5, 2GHz…$1,800. I LOVE this machine.
PC users wait untill Apple has completed the Intel switch in two years time …. what a a..wh.. writing !
How prescient, that quote from SJ, that he knew morons were going to suggest a Mac–>Win Switch LMFAO
Give me a fuckin’ break.. the Intel switch means the next ten years will be great for Intel.. what does this have to do with MS? I don’t know what this guy’s smokin..
Is it hard to believe IBM was great until their broke promises, now Intel’s more attractive? Why is that impossible..?
MacConvert, why should we have to wait 6 or 7 years to abandon the x86 architecture?!?!
Apple has the ability to do pretty much anything they want (proven by the fact that they’ve maintained PPC/Intel functionality since day 1!!).
I’m sure Intel has some interesting concepts looking for a market that will embrace something new (unless you still count Windows 95 new!!!).
It’s the OS, stupid!
I think Macadaddyoo makes a good point! Let’s all stop calling the new Macs, MacIntels. I say we just call them the best darn computer ever!
I guess you have to ask that very simple question of;
If I had to use Intel Inside, which operating system would I rather use; Mac OS X or Windows XP?
Well it’s different strokes for different folks, but my choice would be an easy one; Mac OS X!
Of course don’t overlook your other options, there’s still Linux and if you’re computer savvy enough to venture into uncharted territory, then the Amiga would be your final destination
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So the processor is what drives the question “Mac or Windows?”
In all my years of computing, I’ve never really though, “Hmm. I’ve gotta get this issue of the magazine to press by end of day. This PowerPC processor had better do the trick. Otherwise, I’ll have to go Windows.”
If IBM would have gotten off of their A##es this would have been a non issue. Maybe this will be the spur intel needs to put out a higher quality product. Look at the progress the U.S. automakers have made in quality after years of being the japanese automaker’s biotch. Still not there yet, but gaining. I dont care what kind of processor (and I dont think anyone else should either) the dang thing has in it, if it does’nt crash (and OS-X rarely allows that), I’m good.
Hey Grrrila, have you checked out Osiris <http://www.sim.hcuge.ch/osiris/01_Osiris_Presentation_EN.htm>
or is that not what you need?
Apple is going to switch to faster and more energy efficient CPUs next year, and these idiot journalists are trying to spin it as a bad thing. I love it. Next thing we know, Dubya will declare that our mission is accomplished in Iraq (again), and people will be saying that Mac OS 10.5 Leopard (when it ships in 2007) ripped off the 2011 version of Windows.
:p They are called PowerMacs for a reason that is why we call the others Macintels or Intelimacs.
I believe it is the nature of the mac user to cherish the classic.Rather than switching some users will want to purchase the last of the power range and maybe even defy the change. As yet im sure the intel is not more capable and will not be for the forseeable future.As the transition happens id like to see the benchmarks of both machines in a head to head and see the real difference of dual 2.7 vs dual 3.6.