Apptel?

June 04, 2005

Following an earlier story in the Wall Street Journal, CNET reports this evening that Apple will announce next week that it's abandoning IBM's PowerPC chips and will begin shifting to Intel processors in 2006. The richly detailed piece, by Stephen Shankland, sounds awfully convincing. (Although it comes just a few hours after eWeek reported that Apple might be preparing to announce plans to use dual-core PowerPCs from IBM in future models.) If the Intel move does pan out, it would seem to indicate that Apple is chucking its niche strategy and will battle it out for the mainstream market - a high-risk, bet-the-company move. At least one thing's certain: Steve Jobs has yet again managed to ensure that the media's manifold eyes will be glued to him when he takes the stage Monday to deliver the keynote address at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference.

June 5 Update: The CNET report has now been backed up by the Wall Street Journal and, in its Monday edition, the New York Times.

Posted by nick at June 4, 2005 12:25 AM

Comments

Everyone is assuming that the move to Intel means a move to the 486 architecture. What if it means that Intel is getting into PowerPC chip manufacturing business? This would have wider implications that the Apple deal, as the PPC chip is gaining marketshare in gaming devices, servers, etc. At any rate, Jobs' talk should be interesting.

Posted by: Tim Swan at June 6, 2005 09:00 AM

There is this rumor, they're talking also with AMD: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23714

Sure it's a big deal - but finally it is market economy (which includes mesures for price and quality)!

Posted by: fortuna at June 6, 2005 09:08 AM