WSJ: Apple switches to Intel

[Deanpaul]

Grrrrr.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) is expected to announce Monday that it will begin shifting its Macintosh computer line next year to Intel Corp. chips, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation.

The move would be a major change in strategy by Apple, a high-profile win for Intel (INTC) and a blow to International Business Machines Corp. (IBM). and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (FSL), suppliers of the PowerPC chips long used in its Macintosh systems.

Apple executives were not immediately available for comment.

Apple's decision, which comes after years of industry speculation and behind-the-scenes lobbying by Intel, could cause disruptions for Macintosh users, the paper said.

Application programs will have to be adapted to run on Intel's x86 chips, the calculating engines used in most computers running Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows operating system.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, is expected to explain the shift Monday during a keynote speech at the company's annual software developers conference in San Francisco, said the people familiar with the situation.

Could cause disruptions for Macintosh users? No ****.

The move from 68040 chips to PowerPC chips in the mid-90's was a ******* nightmare. OS 9 to OS X migration was a total wankfest, as ******** like Epson and Umax spent months trying to decide if they were going to invest in a major software rewrite to continue to support the Mac platform. Epson did, Umax didn't.

Well, there goes an otherwise productive office environment. If OS 10.4 Tiger wasn't going to make my Epson 1200 and Brother MFC 9600 obsolete, this stroke of genius certainly will. What other peripherals will it take with it? My Wacom tablet? My Sony Ericsson mobile phone? My Linksys wireless router? My Sony digital camera, or my Canon video camera? Hell, I'm not even confident my iPod will work with whatever Steve Jobs "officially" pulls out of his ass tomorrow.

[Morgbug]

 

As a former Mac user (the switch was quasi-necessitated by both the Mrs. and I working on Windows based platforms - the fight became pointless) this is rather disturbing.  And surprising, given the long effort to remain un-PC-ish.  Wow.

[CorranHorn]

there shouldn't be too much of an issue with compatibility in future Macs using the Intel architecture. most of the hardware deanpaul mentioned, likely have PC-based counterparts and as such the programmers at the manufacturer are already familiar with the ins and outs of Intel architecture as well as the Mac O/S. If there is a fluid handover between the pre-existing chipsets to Intel's chipsets by Apple on the O/S side, there should be no technical reason that hardware and software manufacturers  would not continue to support the Mac environment.

[BillCable]

So will the xbox360 now be the only piece of hardware manufactured using PowerPC processors?

[Deanpaul]

So will the xbox360 now be the only piece of hardware manufactured using PowerPC processors?

Maybe they'll tell IBM to take a hike as well. j/k

It's big news, and it will take over a year before they're ready to launch the high end machines. Which is good, hopefully the user base won't bear the brunt of the beta process that way. Still, I really don't know what to think about it. I guess the biggest question is how easy it'll be for app developers to port their code over to the new Intel machines. Jobs claims it'll be a snap, but I hope that's not just the 'reality distortion field' at work.