I'm not so sure about that. IBM seems unwilling or unable to
produce mobile G5s, which is a market that Apple considers very
important. They also are 2 years behind schedule on 3.0Ghz G5s,
and appear to be focusing on video game processors instead of
desktop and mobile processors.
Apple might be OK in a speed comparison right now (on desktops,
they are clearly losing in laptop comparisons), but how about in
two years? Perhaps IBM has told Apple that they won't attempt a
laptop chip, since the volume is way higher for video game
consoles? What should Apple do?
Personally, it looks like it will be a bit painful for a few years,
but a far better move in the long run.
Ian
I used to be a NeXt developer. This announcement is very reminiscent
of the NeXt announcement to stop making those little black boxes and
bring NeXt OS on Intel chips. We had just bought a ton of hardware
and they demo this clunky 386 PC. First of all, it looked nasty. We
were used to that elegant design. Secondly, it kept crashing. It
destroyed the culture. It was like putting Haydn into the juke box
at a disco. Everyone went home. The vice president of our division,
who bet his career on NeXt, resigned and NeXt languished for years.
It is the same scenario playing out again. Will Steve Jobs never learn?
BTW, I have just installed Tiger and I am not pleased. It seems
buggy. Try to print from the Mail.app, it takes my system about 60
seconds to have the print menu come up. And shameless marketing: do
we really need to have the "order supplies from Apple" button in our
face every time we print.
Joe.
