Not so different now: Apple to switch Macintosh line to Intel chips
But on Monday, Apple started thinking a lot like Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Gateway Inc. It announced plans to switch the Mac to the same Intel chips that have powered Windows-based machines for years.
The deal, which has long been rumored, will help Apple better compete with the performance — and potentially the price — of Windows PCs. Still, Apple will continue to build its own computers and says it won’t be licensing its software to other PC vendors.
If past transitions are any indication, such a move is likely to be rocky for Apple, its customers and software developers. Analysts said such changes in the past have hurt the Mac’s worldwide market share, which now is at 2.3 percent, according to the research firm IDC.
For starters, it must convince users and potential buyers that today’s Macs will not become the technology equivalent of lame ducks. And it must get programmers to develop software that works on both versions of the Mac.
Speaking to thousands of software developers, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the transition will start by mid-2006, with the entire Mac product line switched by the end of 2007. He said it won’t to be a fast change, and the company is taking steps to make it easier.
Programmers can immediately start developing software in a format that will run natively on both existing and future Mac chips, he said. Apple also will have a technology in place that will translate the code so that older programs will run on the Macs with Intel inside.
Jobs revealed that Apple has been working on the move for at least five years, creating two versions of its Mac OS X operating system for both the current Mac chips and those built by Intel.
“Mac OS X has been leading a secret double life,” he said.
He said the move was driven by the fact that its current chip suppliers — IBM Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. — could not promise the same horsepower and power efficiency as Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company.
Intel, on the other hand, has plans to make its chips more powerful without dramatically increasing electricity demands. That’s critically important for notebook computers, which by some accounts are beginning to outsell desktops in the United States.
Intel, which reported about $34 billion in sales last year, isn’t expected to see a huge increase in revenue from the deal. But it doesn’t hurt to be associated with a company like Apple.
“I suspect there is a whole bunch of you that never thought you would see this logo on this stage,” said Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who joined Jobs onstage. “I was one of them for a while.”
The news was greeted by a mix of cheers and laughs at the conference and uncertainty among Mac fans who believe a switch to Intel chips is like joining forces with the dark side.
Calming fears that Apple’s switch would ignite a revolt among its most important software programmers, Jobs was joined on stage by two major developers — Adobe Systems Inc. and Microsoft. Both announced that they would support Macs running the existing and new hardware.
Though the Mac could benefit from Intel’s chips, skeptical analysts questioned whether it was worth the risk. In the past, major transitions have led to defections by customers and software developers, said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst at the research firm Insight 64.
In the past, the Mac captured as much as 10 percent of the overall PC market, he said. But when Apple switched from Motorola 68000 processors to PowerPC chips, the Mac’s share dropped to below 5 percent. When the Mac’s operating system later changed to OS X, it fell to below 3 percent.
“I have a lot of trouble understanding why they would do it,” Brookwood said of the transition to Intel processors. “Unless there’s something magical, I would have to believe it’s not a good move.”