“When people look back on Steve Jobs’ most audacious moves during his 1997-2011 stint as CEO, launching the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and iPad are most frequently singled out as rightfully big achievements — as is his decision to open Apple-branded retail outlets and the iTunes Stores,” Luke Dormehl writes for Cult of Mac.
“Back on June 6, 2005, Jobs made another major announcement, however, when he revealed that Macs were switching their CPUs over from PowerPC processors to Intel ones,” Dormehl writes. “At the time, some analysts were skeptical of Jobs’ decision.”
“But Intel’s impressive road map showed that it was innovating — and particularly when it came to mobile computing, which was where Jobs increasingly took Apple during the second half of his stint as Apple CEO,” Dormehl writes. “In short, Jobs’ interest in Intel was an early sign of where his thinking was going with devices like the MacBook Air and others.”
Oh, so one could buy a Mac and run both Windows and Mac OS X or buy a Dell and only be able to run Windows. Muahahahahah! So, can anyone explain why would anyone in their right mind would buy a Dell or any other Wintel box assembler’s kit again? This is shaping up to become a “license Mac OS X or die” problem for the Dells of the world. But, what if Steve Jobs doesn’t feel like licensing Mac OS X? Checkmate. Is it too early to suggest that Michael Dell shut down the company and give the money back to shareholders?
Wait until Wall Street figures this one out. – MacDailyNews, June 8, 2005
Steve Jobs welcomes Intel’s Paul Otellini at WWDC 2005Let’s face it, Windows-only users have no idea what they’re missing and most are not inclined to do a several hundred dollar “test” to see if they really like Mac OS X and the Mac platform. Imagine if they could feel “safe” in buying a Mac that can run their Windows that also happens to let them run Mac OS X. And we all know what happens once someone really gives Mac OS X a try—Windows quickly falls by the wayside.
That’s why these Intel-based Macs will help expand Mac market share, if average people can be made to understand that the machines can run both Windows and Mac operating systems natively. Remember, it’s a good bet most of these average people (we’re probably talking somewhere around 70-80% of personal computer consumers) don’t even know what an operating system is; they think Windows is a personal computer; you know, the ones who think the “blue e” is the “Internet.” For most people, Macs will become the “2 for the price of 1” computer. Even for the nearly illiterate personal computer buyers, with a little Apple-supplied education via marketing, it would make little sense to buy a limited Windows-only machine from the box assemblers like Dell, Gateway, etc. Give them their “Windows Insecurity Blanket” upfront and they’ll throw it away themselves after they realize how tattered and threadbare it is in comparison it to Apple’s Mac OS X.
The only question left would be: now how do we get them to boot into Mac OS X instead of Windows? The best answer for Apple would be to have the machines always boot up into Mac OS X and allow a “Virtual-PC-like” way to run Windows and Windows apps (but, natively, with no emulation speed hit, thanks to the Intel processor).
The old water cooler conversation:
– Hey, Bob, I just bought a new Mac!
– Gee, Jim, that was stupid, now you can’t run any of the programs we’ve got pirated from work!
– Hey, everybody, look at Jim, he’s a Machead cult member now, sucking down Kool-Aid, no software, no games, what a nut job…
The new water cooler conversation:
– Hey, Bob, I just bought a new Mac!
– Gee, Jim, that was very smart, you got two computers for the price of one. You can run all of our pirated Windows software, plus you have iLife and can surf the ‘Net without becoming infected in 8 minutes! I cant wait to ditch my Dell! Can I come over and try out your new Mac this weekend?
As for Mac OS X running on a generic PC like something assembled by Dell, it isn’t going to happen (very easily, at least). According to CNET, 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.
One more thing… don’t overlook the enterprise ramifications. It may just get a whole lot easier to justify Apple Macs at work.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
And the switch will be done the same way. Cook will come onstage at some Apple event and announce Apple’s been running OS X on the A-series chips for the past year in secret.
I run a wn 7 with parallels with no problems on a 2012 iMac.
As a matter of fact, the iMac is BY FAR the best windows machine I ever had. Backups and updates are WAY easier. 🙂
I remember being incredibly excited for this news. I was almost about to buy a G5, but instead held off for another year until Apple released its first Intel Mac Pro. Sadly these days Apple doesn’t seem to care much for the Mac anymore. I sit typing this on a 2015 MacBook Pro and I love the thing, but I miss being excited about Mac hardware announcements. I deeply want Apple to really care about the Mac as a platform again. Not just by making thinner and frankly, less professionally appealing laptops. Many of us want a beefy Mac for a decent price with an OS that runs circles around Windows. I miss the glory days of Mac computing….
Another switch coming up.
And the switch will be done the same way. Cook will come onstage at some Apple event and announce Apple’s been running OS X on the A-series chips for the past year in secret.
I still have and occasionally use my iMac G5 (First 1 sold on the first day available at the first Apple Store in Canada on the day it opened).
I run a wn 7 with parallels with no problems on a 2012 iMac.
As a matter of fact, the iMac is BY FAR the best windows machine I ever had. Backups and updates are WAY easier. 🙂
It did enable some of apple’s tremendous growth, but it took years before the intel macs were faster than the power pc ones they replaced.
And podcasts on iTunes
All very well, but who needs OS X at all now that Win 10 works acceptably and there are no Apple apps worth the bother?
I remember being incredibly excited for this news. I was almost about to buy a G5, but instead held off for another year until Apple released its first Intel Mac Pro. Sadly these days Apple doesn’t seem to care much for the Mac anymore. I sit typing this on a 2015 MacBook Pro and I love the thing, but I miss being excited about Mac hardware announcements. I deeply want Apple to really care about the Mac as a platform again. Not just by making thinner and frankly, less professionally appealing laptops. Many of us want a beefy Mac for a decent price with an OS that runs circles around Windows. I miss the glory days of Mac computing….