June 04, 2005
Apple to Ditch IBM PowerPC for Intel
News.com is reporting Apple will switch processor companies from IBM PowerPC to Intel Pentium chips. Sources said it will be announced on Monday at the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. Currently Apple has 1.8% marketshare of the worldwide PC market. A move to Intel is very risky, but potentially could help the company offer more price/performance competitive products. However Apple may face itself fighting off hackers who may find a way to run OS X on cheap OEM PCs. Whatever the case, if true the resale value of my Mac Mini and iBook has just plummeted. Moreover who is going to buy an expensive Mac in the short-term if a new one that runs the newer software is coming in a 1-2 years. The source said an Intel based Mac Mini is due in mid-2006 and a PowerMac in mid-2007.
IBM may have forced Apple's hand for not improving the PowerPC fast enough. The company promised a 3 ghz+ CPU years ago and still hasn't produced one for Apple. And then all of sudden announces a 3.2 ghz PowerPC core for Microsoft Xbox 360. If I was Apple, I'd be pretty upset. Moreover the PowerPC G5's design inherently has major thermal problems for being used with laptops, a key market Apple needs to be competitive in. [Discuss]
*UPDATE*: The Wall Street Journal has also confirmed the Intel switch and the mid-2006 Mac Mini and mid-2007 PowerMac schedule with their sources. It's definitely going to happen folks.
