Why?
There may be lots of good reasons to switch from PPC to Intel´s x86 technology (DRM included, better roadmap for the next few years, better performance per watt of power, industry standard, fear of cheap PPC-Mac clones in the form of less than 300$ game consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo,...), but as the first MacIntels are scheduled to ship in June 2006, next years WWDC would have been a perfect opportunity the announce the switch. They could have given a few key developers the information under NDA before and everything would have been smooth and easy, given the fact that Rosetta run your "old" PPC code on MacIntel quite fine. But with yesterdays announcement, who will buy a PPC Mac, if it is not absolutely needed. I guess most people will just wait for the MacIntels or switch to Intel hardware, mostly notebooks before. Apple right now makes more than fifty percent of their sales with hardware, mostly Macs, so how is their business going the next 12 months with their sales mostly relying on iPod, software and services? The only explanation, that comes to my mind, besides the possibility of Steve Jobs gone completely insane, is that Apple is prepared for sale in the next few months. Sony or Samsung might be good canditates to buy iPod and the best operating system on the market, without any legacy junk (Mac 68k and PPC) standing in the way. It´s not a really plausible idea to me, but everything else sounds just utterly mad to me...
Labels: Mac
posted by TeddyTheBear at 9:38 AM
5 Comments:
Hannes - your first conclusion that Steve has shifted to totally berserk autodistruction mode is the only reasonable explanation - dont investigate further. Sorry to say - That is, was, it.
So long Apple.
I use Macs since the SE/30 - I saw the birth and growing up - sadly to see Mac passing away in a unnatural way before its time - a homicide death.
What the hell?
Steven has done what he needed to do to keep making Macs - the reality of the situation is this:
IBM stiffed Apple and they don't care - They have SONY and Microsoft as customers now, both of whom will be making more money for them than Apple could.
The PowerPC has left Apple is the shat TWICE now - for those of us who choose to remember, the G4 left Apple stuck at 500mhz while x86 chips happily hit well over a gig. Then IBM promised Apple (who in turn promised us) that they'd deliver 3 gig G5's within 12 months of that announcement... it's been 2 years - do YOU see any 3 gig G5s... Not counting the ones that IBM are planning to put into those xBoxes, that is.
No Mac user anywhere with half a brain is going to argue with anyone over how much better than everything else a PPC processor is.. but a bird in the hand is worth 2 from a supplier who can't meet your demands! Apple moving to Intel means that they have a constant supply of chip, that run cooler and consume less power than the PPC that they were getting (or going to ever be able to get) from IBM.
The virtues of Apple's control over the build of it's machines and the integration of those machines with their superior operating system means that you're always going to be getting the best out of the Mac you buy. Saying goodbye to Apple means you're going where? Got room on your desk for SUN system have you? Gonna buy a PC and run an AMD (because they aren't the conglomerate that Intel is) are you? Forgetting that Apple has just ditched I FRIGGIN BM are we?
The fact is that Apple isn't going any where and stupid rumors about them 'getting ready to sell' are just tedious conspiracy rubbish. In 18 month time you wont have a clue what CPU is running under the hood of a Mac.. JUST LIKE NOW. I don't know about you, but I'm more interested in watching the screen, as I use the best OS ever released, to be productive.. if you want to sit there looking at the Processor all day - go for it.. but for christ sake stop all the bullshit that you people are piling on top of one of the smartest moves that a company could have made to ensure it could continuing doing what it does best - Make great computers.
If Apple were less of a company and Jobs was less of a CEO then Apple would now be totally screwed thanks to the fact that IBM has got new (bigger) customers.
Get over yourselves, it's just a CHIP and Apple has made sure that the transition will be as seamless as anyone could possibly have done for it's developers and users. That's why they gave people 12 months notice.. so that Devs had time to start making their updates Universal Binaries and users had time not to even notice.
I am totally with you about the benefits of the switch to Intel, but what I am still questioning is the TIMING of the announcement. It´s nice, that developers get early information, but what will Apple sell in the next 12 months and who will buy it? If it is not absolutely necessary, like when or old Mac just breaks, why should I buy a Mac in the next year, when I could wait somehow and wait for the MacIntels?
Why should they buy anything else but a Mac? It´s all about the OS and not so much about the processor. And why should this transition lure Mac Users into the world of Virii, Worms and Windows?
Plus the actual Desktop products are quiet good. Maybe for the Powerbooks it will be a tough year. But the Powerbooks are the sexiest looking laptops in the market, running the best OS. For many customers this will already be enough.
So I wouldn´t worry. There may even be people buying PPC-based Macs out of nostalgia or because they fear/hate the evil Empire so much that they can´t stand an Intel Mac ;-).
Exactly, and it's not like your PPC Mac is going to suddenly stop working in 12 months time. It's going to be years before developers stop checking the "Compile for PPC" checkbox in xCode.
I read somewhere just recently that there were still developers releasing FAT (OS 9: 68k and PPC compatible apps) as late as 1999, only a year before OS 10.0 was released - So it's entirely possible that developers will support PPC systems for another 10 years, if only out of habit.
Buying a Mac now is a smart move - You'll get a good couple of years out of it and when you're ready to upgrade all of the bugs will have been worked out of the Intelintosh systems.
As for the timing - Why not? The whole point is that Apple wants to have this transition go as smoothly as possible. Making the announcement now means that by the time the first of the intel powered Macs are actually released the whole 'chip thing' will be old news and no-one other than tech dorks (like ourselves) will have the vaguest interest. They will just be Macs.
Another thing to consider too that it will be entirely possible for Apple to continue selling both PPC and x86 systems, side by side, for as long as they like. Because applications that are compiled for both architectures suffer no performance hit as a result of being PHAT (the new FAT) then, to the end user, it will make no difference at all.
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