Commentary--The Rumor of Apple Using Intel CPUs

The Wall Street Journal posted an article claiming that Apple may soon switch to using Intel CPUs in the Mac. This is not the first time that this has happened, i.e. a rumor circulating that Apple will switch to Intel CPUs. It has happened several times before. But can it be true this time? After all, the WSJ cited inside scoop from Intel executives.

It seems to us that it is unlikely to be true but we don't really care that much one way or the other. Our feeling that the switch is unlikely is supported by reports on the technical challenges in doing so--it's not impossible, just challenging. The transition hassle factor with regard to application compatibility might be very high. It is also supported by Apple's persistent comments that it likes the IBM road map for development of its PowerPC CPUs. Finally, there's the expected negative reaction of many of the Mac faithful to Apple going partially over to the Dark Side.

On the other hand, the Power Mac G5 has not reached 3GHz, a feat promised to happen last summer. That's nearly a year ago! But to buy this as the reason for a switch is to buy into the GHz Myth all over again. Apple's PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 remain clearly competitive on performance and price with the Wintel crowd's offerings.

The only relevent concerns to us are if the new IBM technology of dual cores is not being quickly adapted for the Mac G5, the game machine CPU technology is also not being adapted for the Mac G5 and the G5 heat issue continues to look like a PowerBook G5 will not be feasible in the forseeable future. If the WSJ rumor is true, Apple executives may be seeing one or all of these happening.

Just remember that the Dark Side is really Windows. Apple's treasure is really innovation, Mac OS X and Apple's hardware design team. Would someone care if Mac OS X ran on an Intel CPU inside a fabulous, innovative, Apple-designed Mac and ran great at a competitive price? Maybe, we wouldn't that much but we'd certainly peel off the "Intel Inside" sticker. [Bill Fox]