Apple - Intel

[SEoptimization]

Apple will announce an Intel based PC that will run on Apple's operating system. Apple will offer both existing RISC processor systems and a Intel based system with the RISC processor from IBM system being phased out as new software is developed, delivering a series of solutions that run on Intel's Itanium chip.

(An original idea to release a duel platform MAC was scrapped )

[aaronjf]

Intereseting SEoptimization, but is this a hypothosis, first hand knowledge, or what?

[Macguru]

I have been praying for Apple to boldely port Mac OS to X86 architecture for a long time now. I just went trought a couple of good mac rumor sites and this topic was nowhwere to be seen...

Can we know your sources, SEoptimization?

[jimbo_mac]

Come on SEoptimization, spill the beans! :-)

[andy_boyd]

Why would Apple port to Intel? If they did then they would loose huge amounts of money in hardware sales.

What would be the difference in building your own box with hand picked components (dual AMD, top of the range ATI and all the rest), pack them into a nice looking box, buy an Apple flat screen, hool them up with an Apple display converter and load OS X. You'd save hundeds of $$$ and Apple would loose their hardware sales overnight.

Anyway, the company have said that they are heading more towards software on purpose. It means they can port key iApps like iTunes over to Wintel and attract people to the Mac and get a steady stream of income. That's the way I see it, althoug the whole picture is a lot bigger than just that!

[takagi]

"Apple is set to announce an Intel based PC that will run on an Apple operating system," reports David Richards for SmartHouse Magazine. "The first system is expected to shown at Macworld San Francisco in January 2004 according to an Apple US source.

Apple to begin migration to Intel Itanium at Macworld San Fran 2004 [macdailynews.com]

[Macguru]

One victim of the move could be Apple’s relationship with Microsoft.

You bet!

If Apple were to go solely with the Intel based system the biggest problems would be that every existing Mac program would have to be recompiled to work under Intel.

You can say that again!

[smarthouse.com.au...]

>>Why would Apple port to Intel?

A)To increase market share within the huge X86 architecture.
B)To decrease the cost of hardware developpement by pickink directly from the huge PC organ bank..

Apple can still pop X86 mother boards in jazzy cases if they like. I believe this will have no significant negative impact in hardware sales. To the opposite, if they sell them at long awaited decent price.

But, who is is smarthouse.com? :)

[korkus2000]

I am a little hesitant to believe this. It has been a rumor for at least a decade. When the first risk chips came out they said this. I just don't see apple going this direction, but I could be wrong. Intel can't compete in the high end video and modeling realm with sgi like apple can.

[Macguru]

I just found out who David Richards is :

CEO & Editorial Director
David Richards

www.smarthouse.com.au/ContactUs

I am no native English speaker, but it seems this "Editorial Director" needs some English courses ... ;)

>>I am a little hesitant to believe this.

So are most people commenting about it in the link takagi provided...

Have fun!

[andy_boyd]

You all have probably seen this, but Macrumors.com recently posted the transcript of an internal IBM memorandum. It revealed that Apple considered Intel, but IBM stepped in and offered a 5 year plan with the PowerPC 970.

So I suppose the conspiracy theorists *were* correct in a sense, but I still cannot see Apple shifting to Intel. It was bad enough going from OS 9 to OS X, but moving from OS X on PowerPC to OS X on Intel would be a huge change, one that would come about too soon for many developers.

[berli]

If Apple really went to x86, they would be doing themselves in. They have long stayed solvent (or at least alive) due to hardware sales. iPod is also hardware (quite nice hardware, imo). iTunes is great, but can't carry the weight of a big company like Apple on its own.

No doubt this was a feint to push a better deal with IBM. Happens all the time in this field.

[SEoptimization]

Today's- Mac Daily News - has an interesting take on -Smarthouse's -
beating everyone to the scoop

[Macguru]

What Mac Daily news? Please post the URL of article, I cant find a thing about it.

Even did a site search [price.com] about it, and came up with zilch.

[takagi]

What Mac Daily news? Please post the URL of article, I cant find a thing about it.

See the link at message 6 or click here [macdailynews.com] for home page of that site.

[Macguru]

Thanks takagi,

I believe that when SEoptimization said :

>>Today's- Mac Daily News - has an interesting take on -Smarthouse's -

He probably got confused with the clock always showing under MacDailyNews Logo.

I read

Wednesday, September 03, 2003 - 11:02 AM EDT

under title of article - the real date of publication- .

The take was just plain humour at another "journalist" who got his tongue caught in the rumor mill.

Here is another shot by macobserver on September 03, the very same day :

The two biggest International Sports when it comes to Apple are declaring the company to be dead or dying, and announcing that Apple will be Moving to Intel, Soon™. Observer Sean O. sent us a heads up on a new player in the latter sport, an Australian reviews magazine called Smarthouse Magazine. From Smarthouse's self-description:

Smarthouse Magazine and Smarthouse Web site are the premier Australian and New Zealand information source for lifestyle consumer technologies such as Home Theatre, Home Automation, Cutting Edge Appliances and Consumer Computing.

[macobserver.com...]

[jamesa]

hardware sales

Yep, Apple has always been dependent on hardware sales, which is why I thought this [webmasterworld.com] was interesting.

Despite that I seriously doubt we'll see an x86 OS anytime soon.

[timster]

It's commonly rumored that Apple has *already* ported major parts of OS X (i.e., "Cocoa") to Intel, and that they use the prototype to let PowerPC chipmakers know they can't be "held hostage."

Before the G5 came out, the Apple on Intel story would have been more believable -- Motorola's G4's weren't keeping up with the competition. But the G5 is fast and will take Apple into the future. They've got G5 iMacs and PowerBooks to design, so they'll be busy enough.

I'm not holding my breath for a switch to Intel. They already just switched their chipmaker to IBM. And there would be serious business ramifications to the move (It would make it easier to "switch" to Mac OS, but could cannibalize Apple hardware sales, as others have mentioned).

IMHO, Intel is Apple's OEM of last resort.

[jamesa]

One more reason why now could be an awkward time to change is that people are still using OS 9 via Classic. I think Classic's performance would suffer too much... Classic/OS 9 needs to die before Apple could do this smoothly.

Slightly OT: The general assumption seems to be that if Apple did port to x86, non-Apple users would then be able to run OS X on their existing hardware. I have my doubts. If they did switch to x86, knowing Apple, I wouldn't be surprised if OS X would still only run on Apple hardware. On the plus side, though, Windows emulation would be much better and I could even see the "yellow box" (Windows compatibility layer ala Classic) re-emerging.