“Apple Computer’s switch to Intel chips puts the company that once promised to ‘think different’ in a tough spot: How different can it be? The company had little choice when it made the move earlier this year. Its previous reliance on PowerPC chips left it with increasingly uncompetitive hardware and dwindling market share,” Troy Wolverton writes for The Mercury News.
Wolverton writes, “The decision seems to have paid off; in recent quarters, Apple’s computer sales have vastly outpaced the overall PC market, and last quarter the company sold a record number of machines.More important, the move seems to have broadened Apple’s appeal. More than half the computers Apple sold last quarter in its stores were to customers who were new to Macs, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said in a conference call earlier this month.”
Wolverton writes, “But the move has alsoplaced Apple in a tough spot, putting it in the thick of the competitive PC market. For the first time, Apple’s customers can now directly compare the specifications of the company’s Macintosh computers — and their prices — with those offered by Dell or Hewlett-Packard.”
Wolverton spends scant time on the real difference that Apple offers, writing just that, “Apple will still have its distinctive operating system and software, always seen as key selling points. But playing the upgrade game while avoiding the risk of becoming just another PC maker could prove to be a dangerous challenge for Apple, analysts say.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A typical Wolverton-penned piece; much hand-wringing over nothing. Apple could still be putting PowerPC processors – or to exaggerate to make a point: hamsters running on wheels – in their Macs and we would still be buying them because the appeal of the Mac platform is the OS and the software, stupid.