>>So to Intel... Apple is really a loss leader. They use them to get the >>new chips into the public eye, knowing full well they will be lucky if >>they even break even on development with sales to Apple... but once Apple >>gets them into the public eye... sales will take off as the other 95% of >>the market decides this is the latest "must have" product.....
>I think we sometimes underestimate the impact of Apple's little market >share, estimated variously at between 3% and 5% of the personal computer >market worldwide. How nice it must actually be to control between 3% and >5% of a multi-billion dollar global market. If you review Apple's >financial statements, you realize that Apple is HUGE, and it's market is >HUGE. Just because the PC/Windows market is indescribably enormous does >not make Apple's share insignificant. I don't mean making back money on development for current products. From what it seems, Apple is going to basically use stock PC clones for the guts of the new Macs. That means Intel will make direct money off them in that respect. Where I expect Intel to possibly loose money, and do it willingly, is in developing NEW chips to meet Apple's needs. Apple likes doing things no one else has done. IBM doesn't want to spend any more money going in Apple's direction, the sales just aren't there to make it worth the development cost. Intel on the other hand will go where Apple wants, because they know whatever they make for Apple, soon the rest of the PC market will want it. They loose money making it for Apple, and make a ton of money selling it to everyone else. This is different then what IBM sees, because IBM isn't selling chips to the rest of the computer market. Apple was the only real customer for what they wanted. Whereas, the PPC is popular in bunches of other devices, and in much larger sales quantities... but those other devices have different demands then a desktop PC market calls for. It is the same reason Motorola dropped out. They were selling pleanty of G3 chips, but their market didn't care about graphics abilities, so they didn't want to spend time and money making new versions that only Apple would buy. IBM is now hitting that. They sell pleanty of G4/G5 chips, but their market doesn't care about low power or ultra cool, so they don't want to spend time and money developing something that only Apple will buy. Intel will make things for Apple, because it won't be only Apple buying them in the end. It will be Apple, and Dell, and HP, and IBM (er, no Lemo... Le... L... eh crap, whoever took over the IBM PC business), and Gateway, and Acer, and Toshiba, and Sony, and all the other PC vendors. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
