Apple’s switch to Intel coupled with profits driven by iTunes and the iPod media player might mean video iPods for Christmas.
It’s an interesting theory, put forward by the Ars Technica news site, that the heavily discussed Apple switch to Intel and its Xscale processor might not mean as much to the Mac as it does to the iPod.
In the wake of IBM delivering those new dual-core PowerPC chips, the ones Steve Jobs claimed IBM wasn’t capable of supplying, a different motivation for the switch in processor suppliers should be considered.
Sure, Apple will get huge discounts from Intel, as do Intel’s other OEM clients like PC market leader Dell. But does that mean a whole lot to a PC maker with less than 2.5 percent share in the global PC marketplace?
Apple certainly isn’t leaving the personal computer business. Not with Tiger upgrades to Mac OS X selling well to the user base at $129 USD per copy. Apple has its niches and its cultish fans, and those markets buy Apple’s hardware at a premium price compared to the Windows-based PC market.
Those Intel discounts will make Macs at current pricing trends a more profitable option. But even if legendary pundit Robert X. Cringely’s prediction of Intel acquiring Apple were to come true, it isn’t likely Microsoft Windows would suddenly cease to exist in the face of mass-produced OEM Mac boxes.
So now, we have a theory that Intel Inside iPod will be the big-time destination for thousands of little semiconductors, with the prospect of turning the music and photo media player from Apple into a music, photo, and movie player.
Instead of competing with Dell and HP on the corporate desktop, Apple would compete with Sony in the corporate employee pocket. Sony’s PSP supports the UMD format, small disks capable of holding full-length movies that can be purchased at the local Wal-Mart. Apple already has a content delivery mechanism for digital media in place, its iTunes Music Store.
Perhaps Apple plans to celebrate the 500 millionth download from its iTunes presence not only with a grand prize for the winner, but with the announcement of the video iPod instead.
And possibly that newfound admiration Mr. Jobs and new Disney chief Robert Iger have for each other could parley into Disney Movies on iTunes, making it Apple’s first big movie studio provider, just in time to boost the theme park and media company’s holiday revenues.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
