Apple Planning Intel iBook Debut for January?

axonis writes "Apple is planning to release its first entry-level iBook laptops with Intel processors next January at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret." From the article: "Apple will almost certainly tap Intel's forthcoming Yonah processor for the iBooks, a successor to the company's Pentium M. It is unknown whether Apple will go with a dual-core version of the processor, slated for release in January, or a single-core version, which Intel announced in August would be delivered shortly after the dual-core version. The dual-core Yonah chip could very likely deliver performance greater than Apple's current G4-based PowerBooks."

Comments

How many?

[geddes]

How many programs have "fat" binaries, with intel versions?

Re:How many?

[nine-times]

I think Apple just gave mid summer as an estimate to give the developers of 3rd party applications more time, as well as themselves if they needed it. Now they've figured out that the developers were quick to transition, everyone's bitting at the chops, and delaying it any longer seems to be a bad idea. Can't wait to get my hands on one.

Makes me wonder: is this jump in the schedule because developers were quick to transition, or because customers were holding off their purchases until they saw the new Intel models?

Re:How many?

[Brad Oliver]

And that does not take into account the recent announcement from Metroworks that they were going to make a PowerPlant Mac/Intel version of their compiler after all.

Metrowerks is, IIRC, releasing PowerPlant as open-source. However, I haven't seen any announcement from them about an OSX Intel compiler/linker. Do you have a reference for the latter?

Re:How many?

[kuwan]

+5 Informative!? WTF?

This guy's talking out of his ass. First of all, Metrowerks has not made any announcements that they will make a Mac/Intel version of CodeWarrior (CodeWarrior is the compiler, PowerPlant is the framework). In fact, Metrowerks announced that CodeWarrior 10 would be the last release of CodeWarrior for the Mac platform. Period. End of story. That's why the latest release is so cheap ($99, download only). Also, Metrowerks no longer even exists as a company inside of Motorola. All Metrowerks/Motorola is doing for PowerPlant (the C++ GUI framework) is releasing it as open source so that someone else will be able to port it to MacIntel, they aren't going to be doing any of the Intel work.

The main reason CodeWarrior had to come to an end on the Mac is because Metrowerks/Motorola sold all of it's x86 compiler technology to a third party, Nokia I believe. They no longer have the rights to develop an x86 version of CodeWarrior. No x86 version means no future on the Mac. Though many of us have seen the writing on the wall for a long time and have expected CodeWarrior to come to an end sooner rather than later.

Adobe will be moving to Xcode because everyone has to move to Xcode. There is no other option.

Also, to put the Adobe comments into context, Adobe's CEO Bruce Chizen had an interview with CNet where he discussed the difficulties in the transition as well as Adobe's possible timeframe:

Q: I wanted to get your take on Apple's switch to Intel. How difficult is the process of migrating apps from platform to platform?
Chizen: Steve (Jobs) likes to trivialize the process and make it seem easy, but moving the apps over is not that easy...Getting over to MacTel is work...

Q: What are the early returns from the people doing some of the work with the developer market? Not that easy, is it?
Chizen: It's not that easy because you have to compile the app, you have to test it. If you look at most testing cycles, for any complex cycle, for any complex product, that's three or four months until it's out. You just can't turn a switch and get a MacTel product--and Steve knows that.

Q: So, when do you think that Adobe will be ready to take Photoshop?
Chizen: I haven't given a date yet... If you look at our product cycles for products like Photoshop and Creative Suite, they tend to be in the 18- to 24-month cycle, which means that you're talking about either Q4 of '06 or Q1 of '07.

Contrary to what a lot of mindless posters think, the transition is a lot of work and will be very difficult for many companies.

All right

[_vSyncBomb]

Well, it should be no surprise, after that high-end Apple laptops improved *not* *one* *hertz* on the high end since January. Still this is pretty big news, since the PowerBook has had to advance in every other area in the interrim--backlit keyboards, scrolling trackpad, now high-density displays.

But it will be nice to again have a PowerBook that is actually somewhat fast.

DVD Jon

[HeetMyser]

Although I'm very (VERY) interested to see what Apple's design crew comes up with for these Intel-based machines, the real drama is going to involve watching OS X make its way into the wild, whacky world of x86 commodity hardware. Surely this is going to be one of the most sought-after hacks in the world after the first final release of OS X Intel hits the streets. God help whichever Apple lackey is within 100 yards of SJ when this happens.

Found out via a few 'poison apples' at the Duke...

[digitaldc]

...of Edinburgh pub.

"I don't see a need for Apple to go much below $1,000 unless they are going to offer a really low-end iBook with really low-end features," he said. "Cheap (Windows-based) notebooks are just that. Cheap. They have low-resolution, small hard drives, little memory. Apple doesn't need to compete their. They could keep the price the same and offer more. If you're going to lower prices (on iBooks), then lower them on the high end, and add a third, higher-end model that comes at $1,299."

Spelling nazis rejoice!

Re:Humor & irony

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

I expect Apple to get 100% compatibility via Rosetta quite easily. the only difference is speed - MS needs to run games in "real time" whereas computer programs being a bit slower isn't too much of a problem.

It figures...

[XxtraLarGe]

I just bought my PowerBook G4. But then again, it runs all my current software/games flawlessly. As much as I love my Macs, any time I've bought first gen products they've been sub-par. I think I'll wait a year or two so that there's a good enough collection of native software available.

Could? More like "had better".

[jasenj1]

"The dual-core Yonah chip could very likely deliver performance greater than Apple's current G4-based PowerBooks."

Could? The dual-core Yonah's had better deliver performance better than any of Apple's current laptop lineup. One of the main reasons for the switch to Intel is the sad state of Motorola and IBM's low-power chips.

Other places are indicating that Apple will release the Powerbooks first because the higher performance CPUs are what Intel has available now, with the lower performance ones coming in the Spring.

Not news. Merely rumor.

- Jasen.

Right Timing

[_eb0la_reston_]

The announcement date (Jan 2006 at Macworld San Francisco) makes sense: January sales figures are flatline.

Apple, usually makes new product announcements on January:

    * 2005 - iPod Shuffle
    * 2004 - iPod Mini / XServe G5
    * 2003 - 20" Cinema Display + New Powermacs + New iBooks + iLife + Safari + Final Cut Express
    * 2002 - New iMacs + 12" iBook + iPhoto + OSX installed by default on new machines...
    * 2001 - Titanium iBook.

Re:This is why I love Apple

[(A)*(B)!0_-]

Management of deadlines is as much about not missing deadlines as it is setting realistic timeframes. If someone tells me a project will be done in six months and they complete it in six weeks, I want to know why the original timeline was so poorly calculated.

Re: This is why I love Apple

[embrown]

Not exactly. Apple has had its share of delayed product. Just take the promised "3GHz PowerBook" that never arrived for instance -- that's what got Apple into this whole Intel mess to begin with.

Get A Grip

[NDPTAL85]

See here's the thing. This is software, not the Civil Rights Movement. I'm not going to deprive myself of an enjoyable and easy to use computing experience provided by Apple (or even Microsoft) just so I can be "free" with "Only If Your Time Is Worthless Linux".

Have fun not having fun.