“When Apple first announced its switch to “Intel Inside” most people seemed to rationalise the change on the grounds that users fundamentally don’t care what’s inside as long as the product meets their needs, that IBM wasn’t meeting Apple’s supply requirements on either volume or performance, and that Intel would,” Paul Murphy blogs for ZDNet. “In addition, most analysts glossed over the reversion to 32bit CPUs brought on by the switch…”
“…the current iMac and the forthcoming MacBook are the first new Macintosh series ever released not to have a price/performance advantage, when purchased as complete systems, over their Wintel competitors,” Murphy writes. “… the reversion to 32bit CPUs isn’t much of an issue for the laptops, iMac, and the entertainment products. It does, however, knock out the key business lines: the PowerMac and X-Serves, and therefore cripple Apple’s drive to maintain its market share in the high end publishing, photography, and video processing businesses. Fundamentally what’s going on with those lines is that each time Intel announces further delays in getting lower power, 64bit, CPUs or integrated multi-core processors out the door in volume, Apple’s options for this business line narrow and its credibility among key customer groups driving widespread downstream adoption decreases… the promised speed increases simply aren’t there. Many reviews have now been done of the Core Duo based products, and the results are virtually unanimous: on applications built specifically for the x86 architecture the dual core 2.Ghz Intel machine is in the range of 10 to 30% faster than the G5 it replaces while producing significantly less than 50% of the G5’s throughput on key user applications like Photoshop that have yet to be ported back to the x86 world.”
Murphy writes, “Look at an average real world usage mix and a new iMac is considerably slower than an old one. Users will, of course, understand intellectually why that is, but the right to watch Microsoft Word run more than twice as fast on the other guy’s Windows/XP machine isn’t going to sell a lot of MacBooks or iMacs… Bottom line? “Intel Inside” cheapens the brand, weakens the halo effect supporting Apple’s highly profitable entertainment products, raises Apple’s costs, results in reduced overall performance, and limits Apple’s ability to differentiate its products.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A couple of points: 32-bit Intel CPUs are most probably not going into Power Macs and Xserves. If they do, Jobs had better bring along his “A” game RDF for that announcement. When Murphy writes that “the promised speed increases simply aren’t there,” he conveniently compares the G5 to the Core Duo and forgets that the PowerBooks was never a G5, it was a G4. The speed increases are there. Another important point is that Intel-based Macs actually get faster over time as more and more applications become Universal Applications (Intel- and PowerPC-native). One cannot take a snapshot at this early stage today and conclude that Intel-based Mac speed increases aren’t there. Quite the opposite is actually true. And who the heck cares how fast Microsoft Word runs; how fast can you type?! Anyway, as Microsoft and Adobe finally get their acts together on Universal Applications for the Mac, that iMac or MacBook Pro you just bought will get faster all by itself; you won’t have to do a thing except enjoy the speed (besides paying Adobe or Microsoft whatever price they demand for the upgrades). By the way, all of the benchmarks done to date weren’t done with the new faster, up to 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo chips that are now available for the MacBook Pro.
The Apple iMac Core Duo and the MacBook Pro are quite possibly the finest personal computers ever shipped for the consumer desktop and pro portable markets. Don’t just take our word for it, see the related articles below for reviews from many different sources.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple begins shipping MacBook Pro notebook computers with faster 2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo processors – February 14, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
Analyst: Apple seeing strong sales of iMac Core Duo, MacBook Pro, 5th generation iPod – January 25, 2006
Apple: expect MacBook Pro shortages – January 19, 2006
Use the ExpressCard slot to add FireWire 800 to Apple’s new MacBook Pro – January 15, 2006
Apple MacBook Pro, ExpressCard and EVDO – January 14, 2006
Apple introduces MacBook Pro; up to four times faster than PowerBook G4 – January 10, 2006
Apple iMac the finest, most reliable, stable, elegant and intuitive personal computer available – February 14, 2006
Dr. Mac Bob Levitus gives ‘highest recommendation’ for Apple iMac 2GHz Core Duo – February 07, 2006
Review: Apple 20-inch iMac Core Duo 2.0GHz – February 06, 2006
BusinessWeek: Apple’s new iMac Core Duo is an iMac on Steroids – February 02, 2006
AnandTech: Apple iMac G5 vs. iMac Intel Core Duo – February 01, 2006
Thurrott: ‘I highly recommend Apple’s new Intel-based iMac’ – January 31, 2006
Thurrott: ‘Nothing on Windows approaches the quality of Apple’s iLife ’06’ – January 31, 2006
Computerworld: Apple’s MacBook Pro ‘fast, really fast – looks like a real winner’ – January 28, 2006
MacSpeedZone: Apple’s iMac Core Duo nearly as fast as Power Mac G5 Quad – January 26, 2006
InfoWorld: Apple perfects the desktop personal computer with new iMac Core Duo – January 25, 2006
Flawed CNET review pans Apple’s iMac Core Duo with 7 out of 10 rating – January 23, 2006
Washington Post: Wait a month or so before buying Apple’s appealing new Intel-based iMac – January 22, 2006
Apple’s Intel-powered iMac provides a smooth transistion from PowerPC – January 21, 2006
PC Magazine review gives Apple iMac Intel Core Duo 4.5 out of 5 stars – January 20, 2006
Time names Apple iMac Core Duo ‘Gadget of the Week’ – January 20, 2006
Mossberg: New Intel-based iMac the best consumer desktop with the best OS and best software bundle – January 18, 2006