Legendary pundit Robert X. Cringely thinks there’s more to Apple’s switch to Intel chips besides giving developers a headstart on porting applications.
Why Intel and not AMD, asks our old friend Cringe. The answer, he says, isn’t a processor decision. It’s a business decision. Intel will merge with Apple.
Intel needs to have demand driven for more processing power, and Microsoft hasn’t done this with Windows. Longhorn still sits about 18 months away from a real release. But by purchasing Apple, Intel gets an operating system that will compel more new computer purchases. And that in turn drives the OEMs to buy more new Intel chips.
That would explain why Apple seems to be completely ignoring Hector Ruiz and AMD. According to Mr. Cringely, AMD chips match Intel on power consumption, exceeds their performance, and do so at a lower price point. Of course, Steve Jobs never did say Intel would be an exclusive provider. A merger would definitely change that, though.
Apple says it made the announcement to give its developers a head start at porting applications. But the porting announcement could have been made directly to developers and locked up with a smattering of non-disclosure agreements.
There wasn’t a compelling need to make the decision public. Apple could simply have taken the usual “no comment” route regarding the rumors surrounding the issue.
Mr. Cringely thinks there has to be a reason why Apple would jeopardize its hardware sales for two years. Intel getting all of its OEM partners to include Apple would make more sense than a lengthy delay that could cost Apple a few billion dollars.
But what about people who use Windows applications? Virtualization is the key here. If Transitive Technologies can do it to support PowerPC applications on the future Mac Intel platform, why couldn’t they do it for Windows apps? Or they could go with Xensource, whose open source foray into virtualization technology was funded by Intel in the first place. And Intel has tweaked its chips to support the Xen technology already.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
