"Mac blowhards LOL!
The Mac-Intel Computer, Finally!
PC Mag. 06.07.05
By John C. Dvorak
Today's announcement that Apple will be phasing itself to the Intel architecture comes as no surprise to this writer since it's simply a smart move. I also first got wind of this deal back in 2003 and expected it to have been announced this January. I missed it by one keynote and 5 months. It's not a secret that I have been suggesting that Apple do this through most of the 1990's and most recently in 2001 (see links below). So when I got wind of it actually happening and wrote it up in this column it seemed, at least to many Mac heads, that I was making it up in desperation. I'd invite the readers to go back to those columns and read what the Mac blowhards had to say about it.
Why did this take so long? Insiders knew about the meetings between Intel and Apple back in 2003 and further knew that Jobs was having problems with IBM. One insider told me that Jobs was particularly peeved by the fact that IBM got into bed with Sony on the Cell chip and put Apple on the back burner. Apple and Motorola had already gotten into a beef once Jobs returned to Apple and killed the clone deals. Motorola was hoping to make money from the cloners as a supplier of the PowerPC chip. After that deal was killed Motorola, it is believed, began to make things miserable for Apple and the relationship became strained.
Meanwhile, Intel, which is right down the street from Apple unlike IBM and Motorola, kept up the pressure to get Apple to switch. Once the meetings began in earnest in 2003 you began to see a decline in comparison advertising. Intel was never pleased by that old ad where the snail had the Intel chip plastered on its back. By the middle of 2004 all the crazy performance claims for the Mac dissipated as Apple planned its next strategy: moving to Intel.
The key here is that Apple and its BSD-UNIX kernel running on the Intel platform should outperform Windows by an extreme and I'd guess outperform the PowerPC running the same software too. So Jobs can change his comparison advertising from PowerPC versus Intel to OS-X versus Windows on the exact same chip. The publicity potential here is chart-topping. What Mac user won't enjoy this show once it gets going?
I've never understood why the Mac nuts are in such denial over this platform shift. This change to Intel will not only save the platform but potentially drive it into a position of dominance. What will be lost, of course, is the niche and mystique aspect of the Mac which many of its users seem to relish as part of some misguided superiority complex.
A more interesting scenario to me is examining the possibility that Windows users can switch to the Mac OS on their Intel machines. Is this going to be possible?
I have always believed that Apple could enter the PC arena with an Intel-based computer that could run OS-X or Windows and begin to take market share away from Dell and HP.—Continue reading
Apple's machines can easily be sold as a Lexus compared to the Fords and Chevy's of Dell and HP. This means better margins than Dell and HP and increased sales thanks to a more normal computer architecture. This is the future of Apple if it's going to survive as a computer maker.
There are plenty of people who would pay a premium for a computer that didn't look like an old-fashioned PC. The case-mod movement has been indicating this trend for a decade. A good portion of the buyers today would like to see something around their desk that wasn't a beige box with all the appeal of 1977 Plymouth.
And now that the turnover of computers has fallen people are more likely, not less likely, to spend a few extra dollars for something cool looking. The marketing gurus have not figured this out and continue to drop prices to an extreme. In the 1980's you'd have to buy a new machine every 18 months, and now it's about one every 3-4 years.
In the short term, the problem for Apple is not to kill its sales during the transitional market. In other words, what happens to the left-over PowerPC machines? The company got through this once before when it switched from the 68000 to the PowerPC. It did it with add-on cards, specifically the Power Macintosh Upgrade card. So I expect a similar product this time. Still, this process is going to be bumpy, but with iPod and iTunes mania propping up the company, this is the exact right time to do this. The company can weather any storms in the process.
When it comes out the other end Apple should be stronger, although some of the Mac mystique will wane. Personally I think that will be the biggest benefit. And so much for the supposed superiority of the PowerPC.
Here was the last of many columns suggesting Apple choose Intel
Here was the column where I reported on this deal (read the comments by the Mac blowhards)
Here is the column outlining why I think the switch is a great idea
I'm around 90-percent right in a lot of this...good reading |
