Apple switching to Intel, by John C. Dvorak

[toast]

March 18, 2003

Apple Switch
By John C. Dvorak

Prediction: Apple Computer Corp. will switch to Intel processors within the next 12 to 18 months.

The story starts with January's Intel sales conference. The surprise keynote speaker was Steve Jobs. And then, in the front row of Steve Jobs's keynote address at the last Macworld Expo were top Intel executives. Shortly thereafter, Pixar announced that it would become an Intel shop. That was all step one. Step two is coming.

Apple has been concerned about Motorola dragging its heels in the processor wars and failing to achieve clock speeds that are even half of what AMD and Intel are achieving. Apple has attempted to rationalize clock-speed issues, but the company knows that it cannot do this forever. Worse is the feud between Motorola and Apple, which began after Apple suddenly pulled the plug on the license it gave Motorola to clone the Mac.

Analysis follows:
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Personal comment: Dvorak is supposed to be a very reliable source, IMHO. So ? Any opinions ?

[dlloyd]

Uh, this was already posted once...

[toast]

You mean this article ? This week ?

[dlloyd]

Well, not the article itself, a link to it and some discussion on the topic.
You can find it here: http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=Dvorak

[serpicolugnut]

Dvorak said it. It must be true.

Seriously, it's ridiculous.

His assertion that Apple would use PPC and Intel CPUs in the same computer is laughable. That makes no sense.

The IBM 970 is prepped and ready to roll in quantities this summer. The motherboards have been tapped out, and the cases are being worked on.

Might Apple use Intel chips in server products? Possibly. But any move to Intel is fraught with way too much uncertainty. The minute an Intel Mac is announced, even if it is just for servers, the Mac users will get wind of it, and will cease to buy PPC Macs. Apple would suffer HUGE. They know this, and are not likely to head down this path, unless it's a doomsday plan in the event of Motorola and IBM falling so far behind that their sales won't survive.

Being Mac users, we have an ability to use our heads, something the Dvorak apparently isn't able to do.

[toast]

Okay, thanks for mentioning this, dloyd. Same, thanks serpicolugnut, I'm not enough in news & rumours to distinguish what's half-credible and what's complete b*llsh*t.

[Javintosh]

not only has this been posted before, dinglenuts (Dvorak) has made this prediction before....

I think he's just looking for free publicity (which he usually gets) and a few steamed mac users (which he also usually gets)

[Rhino_G3]

I believe it was approximately 12 to 18 months since he said this the last time

There are emulation cards available where you can actualy place an intel chip within your mac. I haven't used them in a number of years so I'm unsure of their viability today. Back in the day they worked great.