Apple *IS* switching to Intel

[cavalierlwt Profile]

Holy crap, this a bombshell. Apple stock dipped friday on reports that iPods sales may have flattened out.
Now this story pops on Saturday, so come Monday, Apple stock is going to go through the roof.
This is going to rule, Macs should get cheaper, with faster upgrades in powers. Pentium-M iBooks!

http://tinyurl.com/byp5e

[Stl Lunatic Profile WebsiteYIM]

Sweet now the guy who stol my Ipod can't sell it on ebay and make as much money as before...

[cavalierlwt Profile]

Originally posted by Stl Lunatic
Sweet now the guy who stol my Ipod can't sell it on ebay and make as much money as before...

You win the award for seeing the sunny side of things!

[SavageParrot Profile]

Macs rule!

[Destructor Profile]

if i were not so drunk i'd buy some fake stock in mac but i guess i'll wait till i awake

[flapjack]

I wonder, what, if anything this will do other than maybe make things a little cheaper. Or is Mac trying to become more like Dell and this is a play to get their operating system more widely used?

[cavalierlwt Profile]

No,no, Macs aren't becoming Dell.
Macs use IBM PPC chips. They are good, but very expensive and IBM has failed to meet it's obligations regarding speed. Instead of ramping it up to 3GHz, they just sort of let it linger at 2.5GHz. Apple was forced to make their high end Mac using dual processor to keep pace with Intel,AMD. So now they have *two* expensive processors, driving the cost Mac up even more. IBM doesn't care because Macs are like 3-4% of the market, they aren't going to bust ass and spend R&D money and somehow lower the chip prices, so Apple was frustrated. Also, PPC use a lot of juice, so Apple couldn't use them in their notebooks, they were forced to go with the last generation of processor in all their notebooks.
They switch to Intel, probably to Xeon or Itanium ,still pretty pricey, but competitiive with only one processor,and since Intel is always in a battle with AMD, they are constantly ramping up speed, cutting prices. Apple benefits from the Intel/AMD war.
Apple will remain Apples. They will look the same, run the same OSX (just recompiled for Intel), they will be same speed on the high end, but will probably cost about $800 less, and Apple will probably still take a bit more of a profit off of them. Their notebooks will probably use Pentium-M (a great chip btw) which means iBooks will get a big, big boost in speed and probably stay at the same price. This will be huge, as powerbooks are friggin works of art, go take a look at one, put your hands on it and you will know what I am talking about.
This is a great move for Apple, don't worry Mac fans, your Mac won't change in anyway except price and faster performance upgrades. The only problem is going to be trying to sell G5 for the rest of the year at their current prices. And who would buy a PowerBook if they know it's about it get a *Major* upgrade.

[cavalierlwt Profile]

Just read an article saying that Apple is switching in part due to the upcoming Pentium D (dual core) chip which as built in hardware DRM support, as in no way to pirate music and movies. If Intel has really done this, AMD is going to kick their ass. This will go down as the worst move by a corporation since Coke messed around with it's flavor (remember 'new coke'?)
All AMD has to do is skip hardware based DRM and watch the market share shift toward them. I'm not arguing in favor of piracy, just that people don't like to feel boxed in. Imagine a car that would deliver full power right up to 75 MPH, then it would be capped to that speed. Even people who don't drive 75MPH wouldn't buy such a car, just the idea of it I guess. Still, I'm excited about Apple's switch, they should be announcing it today (Monday), hopefully they will throw us a bone and give a few details. I'm guessing Itanium would be their choice, but I don't think you can put an Itanium in a notebook, so maybe they will use a generic pentium..at least in the powerbooks.

[SavageParrot Profile]

Yeah you got it. If I buy a cd I want to be able to take tracks from it to make another 'better' mix cd. No piracy no buy...

[JimmyTango Profile]

Originally posted by cavalierlwt

This is going to rule, Macs should get cheaper, with faster upgrades in powers. Pentium-M iBooks!

It in no way means they will get cheaper. It depends on if Apple makes the hardware proprietary. It isn't just the CPU they use, it is the total package. They could basically be replacing just the CPU and still have their proprietary motherboards, etc.

Hopefully, Apple finally realizes it is stupid to have proprietary hardware, as all it does is drive up costs and drives down sales.

[cavalierlwt Profile]

all things being equal, the Intel processors WILL cost less than 2 PPCs did. If you knock $600 off the cost of processors, then that can easily knock $500 to $600 off the price. The Mac Mini will be the first to switch. For example, the G4 1.4 GHz PPC in a Mac Mini supposedly costs a little less than $300. It's equivalent to an $85 dollar 2.6GHz Celeron. Mac Mini cost should be reduced.
Intel will always be cheaper at a given level of power than PPC will ge due to economy of scale.
As for the rest of Apples hardware, it may not work off the shelf with PC hardware, but its all based on the same standards. They use AGP, firewire, usb, the same memory, same disk drive interface etc. You won't be able to grab a videocard out of a PC and put it in a Mac, but thats by design. All Apple will do is change things enough so that they aren't interchangeable.
I stand by statement, the Mac will drop in price. Not PC cheap, but definately cheaper.

[cavalierlwt Profile]

Update:
Apple *will* allow Windows to run on Apple hardware, but they won't support it of course. And of course, Apple will not allow OSX to run on non-Apple hardware.
This gets better and better

[JimmyTango Profile]

Originally posted by cavalierlwt

I stand by statement, the Mac will drop in price. Not PC cheap, but definately cheaper.

Price dropping, and price dropping to comparable PC are two different things.

For the later, it will take more than just switching the CPU.

[flapjack]

Here is some interesting feedback from Mac game developers. Looks like most of them agree that this is the end of Mac game development.

http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=355

[cavalierlwt Profile]

Originally posted by JimmyTango
Price dropping, and price dropping to comparable PC are two different things.

For the later, it will take more than just switching the CPU.

I have feeling Macs will never be as cheap as PCs. Jobs likes to control hardware as well a software, and he'll stick with the Apple premium, he always has. Apple views itself as the BMW as computers, so they are never in a race to compete with the lowest end. Intel will allow them to compete with the upper end of PCs and still make a profit.