"Apple's sales of PowerPC will start to shrivel as buyers will find no advantange to buying a PowerPC machine vs a Wintel clone."
No advantage?
For now, at least, re PPC vs. Intel: PPC is faster, PPC is cheaper, PPC has lower power requirements, PPC runs cooler, PPC is smaller, PPC is already RISC (doesn't have to change from CISC design and architecture), PPC is still near the beginning of its life cycle. Intel is widespread, Intel brand means something to people (PowerPC? What's that?), Intel has direct competitors to keep prices down.
Granted, a Tillamook (as opposed to a Pentium II) works in a laptop, but I'd rather have a 750 or future PPC than a Tillamook, for the above reasons.
Rhapsody for PC compatibles vs. Rhapsody for PowerPC:
Apple's stated intentions are that R for PC compatibles will do everything that R for PPC will do, except run native Mac OS applications. Rhapsody for PPC (under worst-case scenario) emulates Intel-compatible chips through third-party emulation (Virtual PC), and can still run a high percentage of Windows- and DOS- (and OS/2- and Linux-) based applications. If Apple can provide a degree of out-of-the-box compatibility for WinNT apps, so much the better.
Current Mac OS users can make use of their investment in current software, as well as have the ability to sample the PC-compatible world, and have a fast and inexpensive machine, through Rhapsody for PPC, rather than buying Intel-compatible.
Current Intel users, who decide they like Rhapsody for PC-compatibles when they see it running, may choose to opt for Rhapsody for PPC, if PPC keeps a good speed and price gap between it and Intel-compatibles, and if their key software investments will run acceptably on Rhapsody for PPC.
If Jobs puts an NT Server level price on Rhapsody, rather than an NT Workstation price, that will definitely tip the equation against PPC.
Granted, end-consumers have to hear about advantages before they will know about them. I certainly won't be surprised if the PPC market does shrivel. Motorola and IBM don't seem to be nearly as constructively paranoid as Andy Grove and company.
And by the time Merced comes out, we'll all be Rip van Winkles in technology years, so who knows what alliances will have developed among all today's major players and tomorrow's players to come. |
