Thursday, June 09, 2005

Think Intel, Process Different

If you have been following the news from this year's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, you may have heard that tiny bit of news that Apple is dropping IBM to use Intel processors starting in 2006. When CNET reported on this almost a week before the keynote by Steve Jobs, I was initially skeptical and passed it off as rumor. The thought of an Intel processor inside my Mac disturbed me, as I've advocated PowerPC for years! But is Apple shooting itself in the foot for hardware sales for the next 12 months? Yes and no, I think. Will the next PowerBook have a G5 or a Pentium M processor? One of my biggest concerns is PPC compatibility in the new version of Mac OS X, codenamed "Leopard," which should be announced in the next year. Steve Jobs' announced they still have some PPC based Macs to be introduced later in the year, and that Universal Binary builds of applications are the cure-all for this transition. This move is exciting, as this will level the playing field for PC manufacturers. Apple is going right after Dell with this move, and some say Microsoft too. Robert X. Cringely has written an interesting scenario in which Apple gets bought out by Intel. Read his write-up, with a lot of important questions being asked, at I, Cringely. Also, I encourage all three of my readers to post their thoughts in the comments section!

1 Comments:

At 6/10/2005 08:37:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It will be an interesting time for the next year or so. I've just put some money down on an iMac G5 or two, slated to last and suffice my computing needs for the next 5 or more years, and I hope to be able to run Leopard on it too. I'm also excited to be an Apple user in these changing times, and this IS a bold move by Apple. I for one have already got the Intel Inside Dasboard widget

 

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