Intel rolls out Core 2 Duo chips

Apple's poised to announce speed-bumps for the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBooks at WWDC, at the very least.

The Xeon 5100 series processor is most likely already ferevently being integrated into the G6 workstations and XServe systems - let's hope these are going to be announced as well - seeing as how these are of more interest to developers, it would make sense to expect these.

..that we will see any consumer machines at WWDC.. People are still scooping them up by the boatload.. Converting to the new chip at a higher price to Apple isn't going to increase the sales rate of them..

New Xeon workstations, however, are deperately needed.. Now.. Like n...na...now.. ra..ra..ra...ri.. right now.. nanow..

Dell, HP , Gateway, etc. will all jump at the new chips; Apple being late to the performance/price party won't help those strong sales. The CPUs aren't even significantly more expensive, the Core Duo however is on the way down price wise. Turning down the chips would be as stupid as them saying thsi in 2004: "Hmm, well that 2.5GHz G5 does seem good.... but the 2.0GHz model from last year is dropping in price and all... load up the 2.0s for another year!"

I expect we'll see the iMac get Conroe next tuesday, and before or near WWDC the MacBooks get a speed bump with Core Duos still in place and the Mac Mini getting all Duo + minor speed increase or price drop high end.

There's no way Apple could justify holding out unless their goal is to make average users continue to think "Macs are slower!"

I'd say only the MacBook Pro is going to get the Core 2 chips for now, along with the iMac. The mini and MacBook stay Core 1, and if we're lucky, get slightly cheaper.

I just don't get the same thrill when intel is involved. I miss PPC. Oh well, i'll keep my iBook G4, and my PowerMac G4 till i'm cold and gone!

I agree. We will not see new consumer machines at WWDC. Apple will keep the specs the same for awhile. This is because it will reap the benefit of the price drop on the processors it is using for its back to school sales. Last I read there was a backlog of Macbooks.

That is one of the main benefits of going Intel, Apple can maintain its healthy margins better. Consumers will not care if the chips are not the best ones.

You might not get the same chill, but at least you will get a lot more done. The new Macs are much faster. The MacBook Pro is by far the best Mac I have ever used.