Apple Computer Inc. is reportedly poised to take a big bite out of its traditional core.
According to reports, Apple is getting ready to dump its longtime chip supplier International Business Machines and use Intel Corporation’s Pentium range of processors for its Macintosh machines. The official announcement is expected Monday.
That’s big news on the business front — and could mean some complicating factors for Apple customers. For instance, Earth Times reports:
The company is planning to use the Intel chips for its lower-end computers, including Mac Mini, from mid-2006, while the switchover for higher-end models such as the Power Mac will begin by middle of 2007. Apple also uses Freescale Semiconductor Inc.’s PowerPC chips now.
Tough Apple has been a loyal user of IBM PowerPC chips since mid-1990s, it has been in discussions with Intel for several years. It feels IBM is not able to meet with its requirements for the entire
range of products.Analysts say the move could be cumbersome and complicated and could impact Apple’s market share. The combination could spell unending problems for software developers to write programs that run on Mac machines using Pentium chips.
This will be the second switch for Apple. It had dropped Motorola 680×0 line of chips for IBM PowerPC chips in mid-90s. The company had then lost market share.
Red Herring adds:
A shift to Intel chips would mark a dramatic gamble for the Cupertino, California-based computer maker while dealing a largely symbolic blow to IBM, the long-time supplier of processors for Apple’s Macintosh line.
By using Intel chips, Apple could make Macs that run faster and cost less. But it would also have to alter the Macintosh operating system, raising fears that new Macs wouldn’t be fully compatible with existing software.
There is also a cultural consideration. Many Mac fanatics use the machines at least in part because they represent an alternative to the Intel-Microsoft duopoly that has dominated personal computing for two decades. Would those Apple customers readily embrace a Mac with Intel inside?
Apple has considered switching to Intel chips for more than a decade. During the early 1990s, the company even developed a version of the Macintosh operating system to work with the chips.
Many of the news reports on this have a slight “hedge” written into them in the way they’re written. But Reuters is definitive, attributing it to another news source:
Apple Computer Inc plans to announce on Monday that it will switch to using Intel Corp’s microprocessors and phase out its current chip supplier, International Business Machines Corp, CNET News.com reported late on Friday.
The technology news Web site said that Apple plans to move lower-end computers like the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in the middle of 2007, Cnet said, citing anonymous sources.
Apple’s Chief Executive Steve Jobs is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech on the first day of its annual conference for software developers on Friday, a venue the report said would be appropriate for an announcement that would require significant changes to the way Apple software is written.
Spokesmen from Apple, IBM, Intel and Freescale Semiconductor Inc all declined to comment on the report. Apple also uses Freescale chips.
What does it all mean?
There are all kinds of possible consquences, as the excerpts from news reports indicate. If (as seems about 99.999 percent sure) Apple makes the announcement on Monday, it’ll be primed for the technological and consumer consquences.
But what about — as the writers above point out — the unintended consquences? Will all of this water Apple down further, bringing it closer to offering products that differ from PCs but keep evolving closer to PCs.
The upside will be a better, more efficient product in the long run. The downside would be Apple becoming more like Pear — part of a pair of PCs…a little different from the other, but quite similar.
PS: Does this mean Apple commercials will now have to have the obnoxious “Intel inside” jingle in them, too?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.