Apples switch to Intel, what does it mean?

For those who haven't been living under a rock or in some deep dark cave, you have probably heard that Apple is switching over to Intel chips for their new systems starting in 2006. Many have responded with something akin to shock and awe since this is much like hell (or whatever dark place you believe in) freezing over. When you look at this in a more detached way however, the move makes a great deal of sense for long term growth of the Apple platform.

One thing Apple has always done was make business decisisons that drive sales of the hardware. Initially, the move to Intel chips looked like they might have broken this trend since it would mean that OSX could run on non Apple branded systems. If this was to happen they would have to compete with other vendors in all branches of thier market. Most damaging would probably be the high end of Apples market where they currently make a tidy profit that helps pay for thier R&D. A change of this nature would most likely yield results like those of the early 90's when Apple allowed other manufacturers to produce clone Macs. For those that don't know, this proved to be a disasterous move for Apple as their profits were vanishing very quickly. Why by an Apple system when you could get a more powerful system from another vendor for less money?

Fortunately, rumblings from the Apple World Wide Developers Conference this week would seem to indicate that Apple will be locking OSX so that it only runs on Apple branded hardware. This is obviously unfortunate for those of us that would like to run OSX on our new shiny PC but is good news for the Mac community.

I mentioned earlier that in the long term this switch will be a good move for Apple, now I'll explain why. The PowerPC processor is a great processor in its own right and had put pressure on Intel / AMD chips in the past. Problem is, the PowerPC has not moved forward the way Intel / AMD chips have. Steve Jobs promised the Mac community a G5 PowerBook some time back, today it still hasn't seen the light of day, and the simple reason is, that chip runs too hot and consumes too much power. Compare this to the current mobile offerings by Intel and AMD, the Pentium-M runs pretty cool and has a good deal of processing power.

In addition to the chips available now, one has to look at the long term plans for the Intel line. By the time Apple is ready to sell Intel based Macs, there will be new 64 bit chips available and new chips based on the mobile core that will be optimal for systems like the iMac, Mac mini and of course thier line of laptops. John "Hannible" Stokes has written a good piece on the long term roadmap for Intel chips and what it might mean for Apple, check it out here.

Intel brings many components to the table that will help Apple with their hardware woes, one does have to wonder though if Apple has enough style and technology to make for a compelling platform. OSX is a great OS so there is hope that with Apples style and the continuing evolution of OSX they will make a good go of it.

We only have to wait a couple of years to know the outcome! :-)