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Cringley Thinks Apple & Intel Are Merging

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-that-would-be-something dept.

SamSeaborn writes "In Bob Cringely's latest column he talks about the Apple switch to Intel and concludes: 'what's behind the announcement is so baffling and staggering that it isn't surprising that nobody has yet figured it out until now. Apple and Intel are merging.' "

10 of 834 comments (clear)

  1. Remember, you read it there second... by NZheretic · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Apple+Intel:Mac 924 Vs Microsoft Gremlin & Linux Mini-van
    This leaves Apple with a choice. Either continue to remain the sole supplier of hardware for MacOS/X and loose a large chunk of the desktop market share OR choose to directly compete with Microsoft and let Dell, Lenovo and HP sell Apple designed/approved "built for MacOS/X" laptops and PCs. The OEMs would love to have Apple and Microsoft competing to sell on the OEMs own hardware.

    In my opinion if Apple does not choose the latter option, then it only because of very bad decisions by Apple's management or Sherman Act violating non-compete agreements with Microsoft.

    1. Re:Remember, you read it there second... by ajs · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "This leaves Apple with a choice. Either continue to remain the sole supplier of hardware for MacOS/X and loose a large chunk of the desktop market share ..."

      First off, Apple has made the choice you describe several times. Every time, they chose to keep running the show. Their proprietary hardware and software (which now runs on an open source middle-layer, which is kind of funny) are very much a part of the corporate mindset at Apple for good or ill.

      That said, I think Apple has grander plans than you give them credit for.

      The iPod is exactly what Apple needed (and has tried to do several times before) to kick-start the Mac's market-share. Eventually, the entertainment desktop of choice will be a Mac with various Apple peripherals. Don't be shocked to see an Apple prosumer-grade digital camera for around $500, and Apple solid-state camcorder, and Apple PVR and any number of other entertainment peripherals for which the best software will reside on the Mac (with merely adequate versions for Windows, and perhaps even for Linux).

      Apple is beginning to eye the space that Microsoft thinks they're going to own with the X-Box, but there's a gigantic difference between the two: one is percieved as a game box and the other as "that computer the really smart people use." That's some pretty serious branding mojo if Apple uses it right.

  2. Answers to his questions... by YahoKa · · Score: 4, Interesting
    That was not a well thought out piece of writing.

    Question 1: What happened to the PowerPC's supposed performance advantage over Intel?
    Gap is breaking, and there are many other advantages of Intel/x86.

    Question 2: What happened to Apple's 64-bit operating system?
    Just because Intel's 64 bit is expensive now, doesn't mean it will be in a year.

    Question 3: Where the heck is AMD?
    Who knows if it will be supported, but AMD doesn't have the supply of chips to deal with Apple. Plus, Intel has better brand recognition and probably more muscle in negotiating a contract.

    Question 4: Why announce this chip swap a year before it will even begin for customers?
    For developers... ?

    Question 5: Is this all really about Digital Rights Management?
    Probably not.

  3. Re:Idea for new Slashdot section by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't think so, I think Intel is thrilled to have another platform using their chips. His competition just became AMD again.

    I don't see Intel merging with Apple, I see Apple using Dell/HP/Lenovo to build their hardware (at worst). I'm not even sure about that as MS has a lot of control over these companies.

  4. I Disagree by Goo.cc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Intel has shown a willingness to support anyone on their CPUs. They even invested in Be and Red Hat.

    I think we need more proof than speculation.

  5. Re:Idea for new Slashdot section by chris_mahan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sun will be purchased by Microsoft for around $2/share, or about $5billion, in about 8-9 months, after another 2 quarters of abysmal sales. The deal is already on, and SUN will be a microsoft division, so MS gets java and a real unix to compete against IBM.

    The reason why Sun bought Storagetek is that Sun needed to convert its cash reserves into company stock, because that can be depressed below actual value, and cash can't. Microsoft might also have wanted to acquire Storagetek tech, because while it sells hardware, the magic of the company is in the software, and that's up MS's alley (imagine real one-button disaster recovery built into Office).

    Sun has already abandoned SPARC. They don't have the cash to hire the engineers they need to make it a go. MS will promise to do that, but won't.

    Apple and Sun? Yes. Where does that leave AMD? with Nvidia, catering to the very high end gamers, and the e-machines of the world, and linux boxes (lots of them really).

    Apple + Intel means software and hardware in proprietary tandem. This will make AMD much less competitive, edged out like alpha and sparc to a fringe, then to nothing, IF apple and intel successfully market their new Apple OSX Intel Inside laptops. If not, then AMD takes the cake and Intel gets edged out long term (which is my prediction).

    Sun customers are either moving to linux / z/OS on IBM mainframes or Linux on Dell servers. If Sun does not get acquired, it will end up like SCO.

    There are enough forward-looking statements in my post that you should bring your salt shaker.

    --

    "Piter, too, is dead."

  6. Here's my take by Dan+Crash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Moving to Intel was probably done for supply and roadmap reasons, but switching architectures gives Apple the opportunity to grow their market share through piracy, a phenomenon that has been exploited by Adobe and Microsoft in the past.

    Apple will only sell OSX with official Mac hardware at their traditional prices to their traditional customers, but I suspect a cracked version will emerge and will displace Windows for a significant number of under-the-table users.

    Over time, pirated software often earns back more than its cost. Users who pirate because they cannot afford to purchase eventually become professionals who do purchase, and users who pirate but never purchase help exclude competing products from getting a foothold. Pirated copies of OSX may also increase the market for Mac software in general, not only because there will be a larger installed base, but because more programmers will become familiar with OSX.

    Maybe I'm wrong, and Apple and Intel will work so closely together that no cracked version of OSX-for-Dells will be out there, but if there is, Apple will have set themselves up for a real contest with Microsoft. They won't have to officially support the wide variety of hardware that Microsoft does, but they'll be able to benefit from having their software on it.

    Still wrapping my mind around the switch, but in the long term, this could be a big deal.

    --
    He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
  7. Re:Sad thing about that is... by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Don't feel bad, Rosetta is probably based on a project called 'Dynamo' which was an HP project that did binary translation of PA-8000 processor code to the self-same PA-8000, running on the same machine(!)

    In other words, it was an PA-8000 emulator, running on PA-8000. And it very often ran faster!!!! (Between 5 and 40%, occasionally slower, but then it switched itself off and ran natively.)

    Obviously there was a trick; and it was that it was able to do stuff like straighten out code, which improved cache usage, and measure how the code actually ran, rather than how the compiler thought it might run, and generally do great run-time decisions.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  8. Why Intel hates MS and Why a 1 year wait? by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 4, Interesting
    1: Intel hates Microsoft because after MS made a 64-bit Windows for Itantium, then made a second 64-bit Windows for AMD64, Intel wanted another 64-bit Windows for their own incompatible x86-64 extensions that would have marginlized out AMD completely. Microsoft said no. Told Intel, you got a 64-bit Windows, AMD got a 64-bit Windows, and anything else you build had better be compatible with one of those two ISA's.

    2: A year from now Intel will have boatloads of VT (Virtualization Technology nee Vanderpool) enabled chips available. So unless there's an SSE4 instruction set hiding somewhere, expect Apple to make use of this feature which, coincidentally will prevent OSX from running on all the old Pentium 4's out there, as well as AMD chips since Pacifica does the same things, but with different instructions.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  9. Re:Clarifying the Cringely story by insignificant1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Dvorak held the position before Mark Stephens. When Stephens came to Infoworld, the mag decided to use a pseudonym rather than have to change the by-line, I assume, every time another Dvorak/Stephens came & left.

    So Dvorak's departure is probably the reason for creating the pseudonym R.X. Cringley.

    But Stephens wanted to keep the pseudonym after later leaving Infoworld. Hence the lawsuit with Infoworld publisher IDG, likely because both Infoworld and Stephens had built the reputations of the column / columnist on the Cringely name.

    The resulting settlement out of court is why Stephens can't use the Cringely name for publishing in a computer publication.

    So hopefully I clarified the parent.

    Cringely Story