Apple to Intel: Reactions and Reaction
Jobs finally announced it yesterday around noon, central time. Apple will be starting to include Intel chips in its systems. I’m pretty excited about this. Apple released the PowerBook G4 a long, long time ago and there is no G5 in sight. It seemed that with IBM’s new chip production facility that the stall may be short-lived. It seems apparent now that there are no major speed-bumps in sight (at least for power-book chips) and I’m sure that IBM is more excited right now by the prospect of delivering chips for the XBOX 2, PlayStation 3 and the new Nintendo game systems.
Apple needs to get on track with something that is going to deliver consistent improvement over time and the only logical partner is Intel. A few of the articles I have read see this as something that will confuse customers and drive them away. I don’t see it that way. Did UNIX scare customers away? Unless someone fires up a terminal, there is no hint that UNIX is sitting under the hood. It’s not an issue. Likewise, as long as Apple uses the new chips in the same way that it has used the PPC chips, there should be no issues. Apple has already said that it will not allow OS X to run on non-apple computers. This eliminates a lot of compatibility issues. The hacks out there won’t like it, but Apple computers are what they are largely because they are a closed system. Apple knows, for the most part, exactly what is in each computer and they can design the OS accordingly. Apple is not going to address the compatibility nightmare the Microsoft does with Windows.
I just hope that the next wave of PowerBooks doesn’t have a goofy Intel sticker on them.