Mac OS X and the Apple Intel Switch
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Now, this Apple and Intel partnership has spawned all kinds of discussions. I have read various reports and comments from many different people. I have to agree somewhat with what there saying but I think there missing a very important factor for this partnership.
So there are some very serious factors that help develop a motive behind the switch from Apple. Most of what I state here is restating what others have said, but I want to add my own .02. So everyone agrees that when looking at the road maps, that IBM starts to fall behind Intel. So how is this a major factor? Well as Steve has mentioned and others as well, the industry is moving toward laptops over desktops. Apple's laptops are a major piece of there product volume and sales. The fact that they can not deliver a G5 Powerbook is killing them. The new Pentium M processor will solve this issue and the power requirements look more like the IBM PowerPC then the current offerings from Intel.
Another major factor is supply and demand. Apple has had a very hard time with demand because of the problems that IBM has manufacturing and delivering the CPU's. Steve wants to deliver on product demand. So going with Intel will solve this problem because of the volume of chips Intel produces dwarfs the amount of PowerPC chips IBM produces. Apple is also going to be using more standard open components by going the Intel route. This will cut cost because of the availability of these standard components.
So what is another major factor behind this decision? I feel that PC games is another factor contributing to this decision. By moving to Intel and getting away from the pain in the arse AltiVec code, porting games to work under Mac OS X will be a magnitude easier compared to writing them for the PowerPC and AltiVec platform. This is a huge selling point. PC games are a contributing factor of PC sales. The gaming industry is on track to surpass Hollywood. Halo 2 made more money then most movies do in its first 3 days of release. Gaming is everywhere. Eventually the laptop and small form factor computers will dominate the PC market and combine that with Wifi access anywhere you go and now you have the ultimate platform for gaming and productivity.
Now Apple has an operating system that I feel is much better then Windows. At this point in time it has no viruses or spy ware to worry about and it runs on the same chip that almost everyone uses that has a computer in there home. This also gives them the hail mary backup plan of opening up there OS and Software applications to anyone using Intel chips. So I must say things are going to get very interesting. I can not wait to see where things go. I know the work that the Mac Mono team is doing will be much easier now that the Mac will be the same platform that rest of the Mono framework initially targeted. I can see a lot more contributing now that this is happening.
I would like to hear your comments and opinions on this announcement as well. Let me know what you think.
I can see Steve and company working on a lot more consumer electronics and software. By establishing a broader product line at the hardware and software level, Apple is going to be in a very good position with this partnership come next year. I can see major market share gains compared to the last 5 years.