John Gruber is asking why I can’t reveal technical details on the Apple decision to switch from IBM to Intel processors.
Simple answer: cause my sources didn’t have them, or wouldn’t provide them. Apple is very compartmentalized to prevent leaks. The OS guys, for instance, are kept from even seeing new hardware they are gonna run on and the hardware guys don’t know anything about new OS’s coming out. Then, even the hardware guys are only allowed to see the projects they are working on.
Makes it very hard to figure out what the details are — especially since only Steve Jobs and a few other senior execs know the details (and Steve isn’t one of my sources). I guess we’ll all learn more today. But, I do have lots of questions that I haven’t heard answers for.
It’s very possible that the answers don’t even exist. Think about how such a large decision needs to ripple through every part of an organization. Imagine if Bill Gates made a decision to do something so huge like this. I wouldn’t know all the details, even though I know a lot of people inside Microsoft. It’s why it’ll take a couple of years for this change to make its way through Apple’s entire product lines. This is a HUGE change for rafts of workers inside Apple.
Like I said, the entire industry is shaking because of Steve Jobs’ decision. It’s impossible to know all the details until the shaking subsides a bit.
It will be one of the most interesting weeks in technology since I started blogging, that’s for sure.
Already more news outlets have reported on this story than any other I can remember.
Robert Scoble is the founder of the Scobleizer blog. He works as PodTech.net’s Vice President of Media Development.
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