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Apple, Intel trying to dethrone Microsoft?

updated 04:15 pm EDT, Thu June 9, 2005

Mactel to dethrone MS?

Apple's "parnership" with Intel is , according to technology columnist Robert Cringely. In reveiwing the announcement from earlier this week, Cringely says Jobs ignored the PowerPC's supposed performance advantage and the 64-bit advantage of the PowerPC chips (which is only available in high-end Intel chips), made no mention of the AMD alternative ("which equals Intel's power specs, exceeds Intel's performance specs and does so at a lower price point"), and un-characteristically pre-announced a move that no effect on consumers, which is at least one-year away: "This isn't a story about Intel gaining another three percent market share at the expense of IBM, it is about Intel taking back control of the desktop from Microsoft."

by MacNN Staff

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DeepDish
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Joined: May 2001

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06/09, 04:28pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cringely is the greatest

Time to buy Intel stock.

Cringely is an "insider" of sorts, his past colums are a great read. I do not know his percentage of hits though.

exca1ibur
Mac Elite

Joined: Oct 2000

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06/09, 04:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
The future, not now...

No use trying to speculate, as he doesn't know what future chips are for EITHER company. As Apple said, they are looking at the roadmap of the next decade. Who's to say Intels doesn't look better than AMDs? We dont know. This guy is talking about the hear and now, the move was made for the 2007 and up, roadmap not the hear and now.

cmoney
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Joined: Sep 2000

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06/09, 04:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cringely

I've always thought of Cringely's pieces as "informed speculation." More informed from a technical point of view than the average analyst but still speculation nonetheless. They're always a great read and usually insightful.

DeepDish
Forum Regular

Joined: May 2001

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06/09, 04:38pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cringely - PBS

Cringely has made some great PBS documentaries too. He was one of the early Apple employees. Something like number 60 something, but I could be way off with that number.

njfuzzy
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Joined: Apr 2001

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06/09, 04:43pm | report spam | close Reply |
Taking back the desktop

Sure, this is about taking back the desktop... but not just for Intel. This is about Apple taking back the desktop!

What has been the single biggest problem for Apple selling more computers? Keeping up with the power, and perceived power, of WinTel boxes.

What has been the second biggest problem? Apple hasn't been able to keep up with the demand for its most popular products for as long as any of us can remember.

Apple was never going to get over 5% market share with the processor picture being what it was. Now, they can compete on technology that Apple can control (hardware and software). Now, they will always have as many processors as they need.

Never more will people be able to say, "The fastest Mac isn't fast enough for me." Never more will people be unable to buy an Apple product they love, because Apple can't ship more of them.

So begins the true path to regaining market share.

RickP978
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Joined: Jun 2005

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06/09, 05:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Another good point

"This announcement has to cost Apple billions in lost sales as customers inevitably decide to wait for Intel boxes."

I know I will nurse my Sawtooth G4 along for another year before buying a new Mac. Who knows maybe the rumor he mentioned will also be true.

"Another clue comes from HP, where a rumor is going around that HP selling iPods could turn into HP becoming an Apple hardware partner for personal computers, too."

It is an iinteresting time for Mac users.

caspper69
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06/09, 05:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Moron

Cringley is a moron. His computer knowledge (or lack thereof) shows greatly in his column. His questions show he's simply no longer up to date. Let's see if we can help the all-knowing Cringley with his questions: #1) PPC vs. x86 with Apple has always been a myth. Sure, there were certain ops that run better on either architecture, but the hype has always been that -- hype. #2) As for 64-bit, Tiger is NOT a 64-bit operating system. Never has been. It supports 64-bit *extensions* for the PPC970, but it IS NOT, and WAS NOT ever 64-bit from the ground up (for that, see XP64 and various linux flavors). No, apple is not going to use Itanium (a radically different architecture period. PPC and x86 could be twins compared to the VLIW architecture used by Itanium). Secondly, Intel supports 64-bit EMT64/AMD64/x86-64 instructions on the Pentium 4, not just on high end Xeons and the Itanium. In fact, the Pentium D 660 used in the Apple Dev Kits already support the 64-bit extensions. How does a columnist miss all of this information?? #3) AMD is a backup plan. If Intel cannot supply what Apple wants, AMD can. Besides, it's not like they're losing much by going Intel only. Sure, I love AMD (using one right now), but to think there will be a huge difference in 1-2 years is foolish. Intel is the largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world and has the brand name to go with it. AMD just doesn't. #4) Announcing a year early gets everyone ready. He is not cannibalizing his sales. It's not as if the Intel-based Macs will immediately push the PPC based Macs into obsolescence overnight. Sure, some people might wait, but if you need a machine now, you're not going to wait 18 months to buy one because of the shift. Heck, if you buy now, you'll most likely be ready for a new machine in 18-24 months anyway. What's the problem? #5) DRM, no DRM, who cares. If it's not built into the hardware it would have been built into the software irrespective of the architecture. This is about Apple wanting DIVERSITY. Sure, IBM can deliver plenty of processors, but can they deliver enough price/performance points for Apple to create an entire lineup? Not like Intel.

Then he goes off the deep end about Cell, etc. If he knew anything he'd know that Cell is not a general purpose computing architecture, period. It does not support many of the features we have come to expect of modern x86 & PPC processors (out of order execution, superscalar instruction pipelines, etc.). Sure, it may be great in the future, but modern operating system kernels (win/linux/bsd/osx) are not written in such a way to be able to take advantage of the chip. Give academia and Sony/Nintendo/MS engineers ten years of studying the architecture before a truly robust and general-purpose operating system will be developed. For goodness sakes, we're only now getting 32-bit protected and preemptively multithreaded operating systems to be stable and robust. R

climacs
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06/09, 05:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
does it make sense?

caspper, if Cringely is behind on his technology, then what about the overall hypothesis? it makes sense to me.

climacs
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06/09, 05:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
stock

i don't know if i'd buy intel but I'd sure begin to accumulate AAPL shares. Not a bunch right away but I think within 3 to 5 years, you'll be glad you picked some up along the way.

climacs
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06/09, 05:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
and

and I bought at $19 ($9.50 split adjusted), i want more now... it'll still look cheap at that price in a few years

wrycooter
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06/09, 05:45pm | report spam | close Reply |
He's full of it

Someone should pour over Cringely's past columns full of conjecture, and see how his predictions actually pan out. He merely throws out whatever, to see what will stick.

And he always suggests something preposterous. Good for web hits.

caspper69
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06/09, 05:52pm | report spam | close Reply |
Overall Hypothesis

climacs - sorry, my post was cut off. I do agree with his hypothesis, I just don't understand why he asks 5 questions to which the answers are either somewhat obvious, or the questions are irrelevant. Make no mistake, Steve's ego is in full force. He's going after Bill's head, no bones about it. We'll see how it turns out!

I can see it now -- Pirates of Silicon Valley II: Jobs slays the two headed Microsoft Beast....

Caiwyn
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06/09, 05:59pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Moron

Caspper is totally right, but I want to add to a couple of his points:

#3) AMD does not have the Pentium M, and that's what Apple wants. Not only for its laptops but for smaller desktops like the iMac and the Mac Mini. Just look at the iMac G5. If the Pentium M were in that thing, it'd be far thinner and even more elegant. Intel has the best mobile processor/chipset combination on the market right now. AMD doesn't.

Oh, and you can bet Apple will use AMD to threaten Intel if necessary, as well.

#4) The Osborne effect may indeed come into play. I agree with caspper that it may not be as huge a deal as some might think, but it will definitely be a factor. However, Apple has been putting money in the bank for EXACTLY that reason. Hasn't it been pointed out that they can go several years with zero sales on the money they've saved up? This transition is what that money is for. They can operate at a loss until the switch is over, and probably then some.

Eriamjh
Addicted to MacNN

Joined: Oct 2001

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06/09, 06:02pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wow....

The things that people can pull out of their asses when they have no information whatsoever!!

klinux
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06/09, 06:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
Pulease

Cringley an insider? Now I really comprehend the stupidity of the Macnn posters. Make enough vague guesses sooner or later one'd be right (like Dvorak).

And dethrone MSFT? That's a joke too. Let's see, should I alienate the majority of customers for the sake of 2% (Apple's share)? I think not.

klinux
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06/09, 06:06pm | report spam | close Reply |
Note likely

Oh, and you can bet Apple will use AMD to threaten Intel if necessary, as well.

Not likely. AMD has had superior products for a while but have always been hampered by production problems. Apple is as likely going to AMD as Dell is likely to switch to AMD. Read: unlikley.

resuna
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06/09, 06:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Where Cringley's right

"The vaunted Intel roadmap is nice, but no nicer than the AMD roadmap, and nothing that IBM couldn't have matched. If Apple was willing to consider a processor switch, moving to the Cell Processor would have made much more sense than going to Intel or AMD, so I simply have to conclude that technology has nothing at all to do with this decision."

He's dead right here. If he was waiting for a 3 GHz 970, why drop out right before IBM's 3 GHz 970 comes out? If he was looking for a breakthrough for the Powerbook, Freescale's got one sampling this year.

I don't know if his intel speculation is right... it sounds weird enough to me that it could go either way... but it's sure as heck not any problem in the PPC roadmap.

tuckjos
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06/09, 06:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
forever isn't long enoug

He's dead right here. If he was waiting for a 3 GHz 970, why drop out right before IBM's 3 GHz 970 comes out? If he was looking for a breakthrough for the Powerbook, Freescale's got one sampling this year.

I don't know if his intel speculation is right... it sounds weird enough to me that it could go either way... but it's sure as heck not any problem in the PPC roadmap.

Are you kidding me? "Nothing that IBM couldn't have matched"??? Then why the heck didn't they????

Why drop out right before IBM's 3 GHz 970 comes out? Because it was supposed to come out ages ago!! We've been waiting for it for so long that I can even remember how long we've been waiting!!! The reason we can't just wait for them to FINALLY bring the 3GHz is because they should have done that EONS ago, so that we could be at 3.5GHz or 4GHz by now!! That's what was promised when we first partnered with IBM. IBM made HUGE promises about the next couple of years, and look where we are now!

We haven't got forever! Well gee, the AMD and IBM roadmaps look just as pretty as the Intel roadmap.... but Intel is the one DELIVERING on it's roadmap! Rather than constantly pushing it back!

Nothing wrong with the PPC roadmap? Of course not. There was nothing wrong with it when Moto was in charge, either, was there? But Moto and IBM have had one major problem in common: as pretty as the roadmap may be, they don't deliver on it!!

That's why it makes sense to go with Intel. With Moto and IBM, we were the primary customers, and I can't blame them for not being super motivated to produce for 2% or 3% of the computing market. So instead, we go with a supplier that isn't making chips FOR us. They're just making chips. And we can use them TOO. So they're not dragging their heels because 2% of the market isn't worth it, because they're not making for us. They're making for EVERYONE. And then we can turn around and say, hey look: on the same processors, OS X is faster. And more secure.

No one's saying there isn't at least a little bit of risk involved here. But IBM's roadmap? Freescale? They both led to the same place: Nowhere.

tuckjos
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Joined: May 2005

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06/09, 06:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Sell sell sell

Another thing: why is everyone always so obsessed with the idea that someone is going to buy Apple? People have been predicting Apple's demise, merger/buyout rumors have come and gone for 20+ years now! Get over it!!

Here's my favorite part of Cringley's article:

"Here is my analysis based on not much more than pondering the five questions, above, and speaking with a few old friends in the business. I won't say there is no insider information involved, but darned little."

Thanks for the disclaimer. I will now disregard all your useless, groundless speculation.

Intel to buy Apple, indeed!

the Rebel
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06/09, 07:12pm | report spam | close Reply |
OS/2

"For goodness sakes, we're only now getting 32-bit protected and preemptively multithreaded operating systems to be stable and robust."

Apparently you never used OS/2 which was a very stable and robust 32-bit protected and preemptively multithreaded operating system over ten years ago.

the Rebel
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06/09, 07:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
stock price

"I agree with caspper that it may not be as huge a deal as some might think, but it will definitely be a factor. However, Apple has been putting money in the bank for EXACTLY that reason. Hasn't it been pointed out that they can go several years with zero sales on the money they've saved up? This transition is what that money is for. They can operate at a loss until the switch is over, and probably then some."

Although you are right, that is definitely not a good thing for Apple or AAPL or current Mac users. Apple will survive, but I would rather seen Apple thrive than enter another Apple recession like we went through in the 90's.

alex627
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06/09, 07:22pm | report spam | close Reply |
Right...

Jobs came back to head Apple only to sell it off to Intel and go back to Pixar and head up Disney. Cringley is on crack.

the Rebel
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06/09, 07:30pm | report spam | close Reply |
IBM and Intel

"Nothing that IBM couldn't have matched"??? Then why the heck didn't they????"

They probably will.

IBM will have a PowerBook capable G5 processor long before the first Intel based Mac is released.

The Pentium-M is a great mobile processor compared to a Pentium 4, but it does not compare nearly as well against a G4. Freescale has already developed a new G4 that easily beats the Pentium-M in both price and performance.

"Why drop out right before IBM's 3 GHz 970 comes out? Because it was supposed to come out ages ago!! We've been waiting for it for so long that I can even remember how long we've been waiting!!! The reason we can't just wait for them to FINALLY bring the 3GHz is because they should have done that EONS ago, so that we could be at 3.5GHz or 4GHz by now!! That's what was promised when we first partnered with IBM. IBM made HUGE promises about the next couple of years, and look where we are now!"

You can not remember how long you have been waiting? Well, I will remind you that the 3Ghz G5 processors were due out last summer. So IBm is running about ONE YEAR late. So your hyperbole about "ages ago" and EONS is just absurd.

Also, it is totally wrong for anyone to claim that Intel's track record for delivering on their roadmap is anything special. The Pentum 4 was suppos to be better than the Pentium 3, but Intel failed to deliver. Intel was going to create a 64 bit successor to the Pentium, but after delays and setbacks, Intel ended up making the Itanium a high end processor only and went back to the drawing board. They promised an SMP Pentium and eventually we got Xeons, but they did not live up to the roadmap. The P4 has been such an absolute failure that Intel went all the way back to the P3 in order to design the Pentium-M.

Intel says that the Pentium D is coming and that it is going to be great. They said the same thing about the Pentium 4.

zoetrope
Junior Member

Joined: Oct 2004

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06/09, 08:05pm | report spam | close Reply |
Money in the bank for R&D

Apple's money in the bank is NOT for transitions. That's utter c*** and total ignorance. Apple's money in the bank is for R&D.

Cringely is not an idiot either. The only idiots are those who speculated that Apple would never never never run an Intel chip.

Jobs came back to run Apple to save his baby. But remember, that was before a bout with a life threating illness called cancer. Cancer can give ANYONE, even Steve, a new perspective on life

alex627
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06/09, 08:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
mass hysteria

There would be no recession. There would be no problem with this trasition if humans were not given to hysteria. There are more people interested in Apple than at any time in the last 15 years and many of you are running around like chickens with their heads cut off mourning the "loos in value" of your G5s and crying about not running RISC.

Once Macs run on x86 their sales will multiply. Dell is in trouble and Microsoft may be too.

resuna
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06/09, 08:36pm | report spam | close Reply |
NOBODY has delivered

"Why drop out right before IBM's 3 GHz 970 comes out? Because it was supposed to come out ages ago!!"

Yeh, and P4 was supposed to be over 4 GHz by now.

NOBODY is ramping up CPU speed as fast as they thought they would 2 years ago.

NOBODY.

Not IBM.

Not Intel.

Not AMD.

EVERYONE has stalled out.

In fact IBM's done slightly better than Intel over the same period, and if they have 3.2 GHz cores in shipping product by the end of this year they'll be ahead of the Intel roadmap, year over year.

thesearcher
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Mar 2002

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06/09, 08:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: IBM and Intel

[Intel was going to create a 64 bit successor to the Pentium, but after delays and setbacks, Intel ended up making the Itanium a high end processor only and went back to the drawing board.]

I've read that, but I've also read Itanic was never intended to be anything but a 'big iron' chip. It's languishing now, so the truth may never be known.

thesearcher
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Mar 2002

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06/09, 09:04pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Pulease

[Let's see, should I alienate the majority of customers for the sake of 2% (Apple's share)? I think not.]

But didn't an Intel guy sort of do that a couple of weeks ago, with the Macs are more secure spiel?

resuna
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06/09, 10:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Itanic

"I've also read Itanic was never intended to be anything but a 'big iron' chip."

We've got HP Itanium workstations at the office right now. They were quite serious about Itanium on the desktop, once.

Intel does this every now and then... try and come up with something less "Disco-era" than the x86 - iApx432, i860, i960, IA64 - it never lasts.

eddd
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06/09, 10:34pm | report spam | close Reply |
heh heh

That "Intel guy" was the CEO of the corporation... Paul Ortellini, the same man who stood on stage with Steve. A friend of his, no less.

He knew what was coming at that point, as well. Interesting.

It's good to see that Mac users are getting over their initial hysteria and depression, but it might be a good idea to guard against the swing back to euphoria. OS X on Intel just may not be as speedy as Windows (Longhorn or XP). There's a fair amount of processor overhead with OS X (esp. Aqua), and the architecture is designed for security and flexibility over speed. My greatest hope is that they get the Aqua overhead handled by fully moving it to the GPU and that Longhorn adds an equal overhead to level the playing field. Otherwise, prepare for the typical Mac-baching from Windows users when the two are compared on the same chips. Especially for games.

Caiwyn
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06/10, 12:22am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: IBM and Intel

IBM will have a PowerBook capable G5 processor long before the first Intel based Mac is released.

Care to divulge your sources on that one? IBM hasn't done jack s*** except build specialized PPC variants for gaming consoles. The problem isn't just that IBM hasn't delivered on their roadmap, it's that they don't even have one. There are no public plans for a low power G5. No one's even confirmed that a dual-core G5 exists -- it seems likely that one does, since the Xbox has a triple-core processor... but then, that processor has to be liquid cooled, doesn't it?

The fact of the matter is that nothing IBM is doing with the G5 is usable in small confined spaces like notebooks. Apple wants faster powerbooks and smaller iMacs, and they won't get that from IBM.

The Pentium-M is a great mobile processor compared to a Pentium 4, but it does not compare nearly as well against a G4. Freescale has already developed a new G4 that easily beats the Pentium-M in both price and performance.

I agree that the G4 still holds up against the competition in terms of performance. But not in power consumption and heat. The fact of the matter is that the G4 is nearing the end of its run, and the Pentium M is just getting started. Freescale's work will be great in the short term, but its e700 cores are still too far away. Intel has 64-bit capable chips NOW, and they'll extend that functionality to their mobile chips long before Freescale does.

The bottom line is that Steve wasn't kidding when he said Intel has a much higher performance per watt. I'm not happy to lose the PowerPC architecture -- I do think that as an architecture it's superior to x86... but if nobody's developing it then there's no use crying over spilt milk.

dennis
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06/10, 12:30am | report spam | close Reply |
re: Taking back the deskt

"What has been the single biggest problem for Apple selling more computers? Keeping up with the power, and perceived power, of WinTel boxes."

Maybe for the geeks, gamers, and true power-hungry users (e.g. 3d graphics pros). For the average computer buyer, the barriers to buying a Mac are:

1) having little or no knowledge of the abilities or even existence of Macs 2) the extra cost, or perceived extra cost, of Macs 3) the relative lack, or perceived lack, of software for Macs 4) having no friends or relatives with Macs from whom to get support and/or pirated software 5) fear of change and/or nonconformity 6) the salesperson/friend/relative/coworker who actively discourages buying a Mac 7) the design of Macs (seriously, people *like* gaudy--just ask Thomas Kinkade)

But power might be in the top ten.

Saint_Stryfe
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06/10, 04:37am | report spam | close Reply |
ok dennis:

LEt's break it down then, through the eyes of a consumer who has a broken or incapacitated Windows Machine. He was just at best buy and disliked the pushy sales people, but he was eying the Apple iPod:

1) hey, that iPod is cool. That company makes COmputers too? Hey I used an Apple II in school! Let's take a drive to the Apple store and look at them!

2) Hey, tihs store is nice... wow, 500$? Great, I have a perfectly fine monitor... keyboard and mouse work ok. (Hey you yourself said Power's not important)

3 (And I'll also cover 6)) Well gee there's plenty of software here? Oh helpful Mac person, oh okay, yes, I see, Word, Excel, Pages, iApps, big isle of games... yeah this is great!

4) Well I don't know anyone else with one... but hey, the support plan is only 100$ more, and it gives me tech support for 3 years? And the Genius Bar people are here all the time? I won't need that greasy guy who hands me blank discs with programs that don't have my name in the Registration box any more!

5) My old computer is ridden with spyware and crud... there is none. Safari, Firefox, Mail, hey this is going to save me hours!

7) This Mini is so great - I can actually use my computer cart for other things, this thing is nearly nothing compaired to that giant tower I was afraid to open!

Conclusion: Happy Switcher, apt to buy software, iPods, shop the iTMS, and trust the Apple products. With a positive STore expereince, will move to other stores.

Now of course this is a best-case scenario. But it's becoming more likely. Apple's in no problem. We're at the dawn of something good, dennis. Let's not get freaked.

resuna
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06/10, 07:27am | report spam | close Reply |
G4 vs P-M

"The fact of the matter is that the G4 is nearing the end of its run, and the Pentium M is just getting started."

The Pentium M core is older than the G4 core.

The fact of the matter is that Moore's Law is hitting a wall. The way to get faster chips is not going to be to ramp up the clock speed, it's going to be to put more cores on a chip. Process shrinks do two things... reduce power and increase clock speed. Reducing power, letting you get more cores per chip, is going to be more important than it has been in the past.

I agree that the fantasy of a G5 powerboook is just a fantasy, but that's not a problem because Apple doesn't need to depend on IBM for faster processors.

the Rebel
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06/10, 07:53am | report spam | close Reply |
dual core G5

"No one's even confirmed that a dual-core G5 exists"

You must have missed the announcement back in March. IBM has indeed confirmed the existance of a dual core G5.

the Rebel
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06/10, 07:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Pentium M

I keep hearing people talk about how the Pentium M is faster per clock cycle than a Pentium 4.

So what? Most current processors are. The Pentium 3 is. The G4 is. The G5 is. The Athlon is. It is hardly surprising that the Pentium M is too. By comparing to the Pentium 4, you are setting the bar really low.

caspper69
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06/10, 10:19am | report spam | close Reply |
Pentium M

"I keep hearing people talk about how the Pentium M is faster per clock cycle than a Pentium 4.

So what? Most current processors are. The Pentium 3 is. The G4 is. The G5 is. The Athlon is. It is hardly surprising that the Pentium M is too. By comparing to the Pentium 4, you are setting the bar really low. "

Kinda funny, but you Mac folks do know that the Pentium M IS THE PENTIUM 3, right?? Yep, same chip given a few process shrinks, a couple of updates here and there and ... voila ... Pentium M. And actually it is going to be the future (or back to the future) of the Intel roadmap (once it's outfitted to be dual-core and given x86-64 instructions + a few other niceties)...

mccabem
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06/10, 10:33am | report spam | close Reply |
Stagnation....

[NOBODY is ramping up CPU speed as fast as they thought [they would 2 years ago. [ [NOBODY. [ [Not IBM. [ [Not Intel. [ [Not AMD. [ [EVERYONE has stalled out.

Personally, I think Microsoft is the prime cause of this "depression".

And I think this is precisely the impetus behind Intel's getting into this deal. (Mostly this point was made in the artcle.)

M$FT's monopoly has been a huge sinkhole for capital and even somewhat for creativity in the whole computer industry. (Creativity that someone can make $$ from, that is....there'll always be good amateur efforts)

If Intel and Apple can even offset the distortion of Mocrosoft's monopoly on the industry even a little bit, we'll all share in the payoff.

richter
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06/11, 09:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
Leave off the Cringe!

As I can gather, from the rather dense message left by Cassspper, this innards business has touched a nerve.

Lads, the medium is not the message. For example, Sun make the best machines in term of pure raw desktop computing power, but are an island unto themselves, and one affected by the rising tides.

Cringely has always consistently reported on the slow steps to the ubiquity stage; the one we glimpsed five, ten years ago where everything was done on a single domestic computer and we all lived in a house provisioned like Bill Gate's.

I used to own a radio toaster, It was ghastly, the heat fried the radio and the toast caught fire. I know have a philips toaster and a philips radio. Philips are very happy about this. I own a ibook and a funky siemens phone, for pretty much the same reasons. A laptop sized mobilephone would be silly ( I used to have one), however a blutooth keyboard for my mobile would be brilliant. I don�t have my laptop, but I can wap out my keyboard and type a witty letter back, etc. Duplication of function to be sure, but each fits my there and then need discretely and at its own scale.

Apple have already created a thing that fills all your -read only- PDA and music requirements. Intel are simply the provider of even smaller innards to more powerful gadgets. What Apple chooses to do with the gadgets and how many is the thing.

Stop thinking about Clock speed, as IBM have done with CELL, as it will hit the mono-atomic wall fairly soon. It is programming excellence that will see the computers through the next �next shakeup�.

Apple are poised to become even more of a household name through their content distribution service. Will the next Mini be a (intel) set top box?

Intel is the biggest chip maker and so can only keep growing by buying AMD, etc. (pointless and expensive.) Intel is thus looking for new �everywhere� markets everywhere.

HP don�t R+D meaningfully for the consumer desktop anymore, but want to start taking on Dell, Lenovo/IBM, etc. Not on price, but qualitatively. Windows can still supply the gadget future but it means having to actually start thinking about quality control and engineering. Not their strengths.

Interesting times.

Catniplover
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2005

0

06/12, 12:58am | report spam | close Reply |
Cringely's is a fool

Cringely's article demonstrates admirably how stupid some people can be and still get the right to publish their misinformed thoughts. I don't think he can be more off the mark on this one. Better luck next time.

Trock
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Jun 2005

0

06/12, 12:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
He is wrong Logic says so

I think he is wrong for a few reasons. Do you acctually think this merger will be allowed to go through? The worlds biggest chip maker into a company which controlls hardware AND software? This will make every thing that Microsoft has EVER tried seems small. There will be only One player which controlls everything. How would other companies like Dell, Gateway and HP take this? they will be forced to now stop producing their own machines and be a reseller of Apple products. what does that do to the industry which now produces all different types of accessories for the PC (Apple produces their hardware) Their will be one unified outcry this so called merger will never happen. and DeepDish i think its time to buy IBM stock (chips for all next gen game systems it cant get better than that)

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Apple, Intel trying to dethrone Microsoft?

updated 04:15 pm EDT, Thu June 9, 2005

Mactel to dethrone MS?

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Cringely's is a fool

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