I can't wait to have a Mac that will dual boot in OS X and Longhorn...Virtual PC is okay but this may be a much better solution. I know Apple won't officially support such a set-up, but I'm sure someone will.

The legal repercussions of Intel creating PowerPCs were probably too great (there is a lot of intellectual property that IBM would not want Intel to have direct access to).

Also, the PowerPC - like the Pentium 4 - "broke" at the 90nm process, which is why both require exotic cooling solutions for higher speeds.

Apple will use the same Pentium D (dual-core) and Pentium M (mobile) chips that the rest of the world will go.

The only other choice would be Itanium2, and that is even more laughable for a PowerBook then a water-cooled G5 is.

which is a pretty small number

And who bought into the case and the software - not the hardware inside.

installed base is 16%

Market share is now 3%

Apple is 5th overall in marketshare in most studies.

Reasons for discrepancy between installed base and market share:
- Mac users usually keep their machines longer
- Macs are functional longer and hold their value longer, and many buy used instead of new
- PC market share is skewed, as PCs are much more often than Macs used in industry functions, such as cash registers, kiosks, etc, which may not be factored into installed base figures but may be factored into market share


Also worth noting: CPU sales at Apple have grown by 45% over the past 2 quarters. Growth is expected to continue as iPod halo effect takes hold and malware continues to effect PCs while the impact on Macs has been nil.

There has yet to be a report of a virus infiltrating OS X in in the 5 years since its release. A number of vulnerabilities have been found, but not even one virus has been produced that has infected any systems. Spyware is virtually nonexistent. Sure, installed base is smaller, so OS X is a smaller target, but it's a heck of a lot bigger than the Linux installed base, and there are hundreds of viruses out there for Linux.

As more people become aware of the fact that the Mac offers the most secure platform, and as more people become fed up with malware on other platforms, I expect this to be the second halo for Apple.

When questioned what laptop they will be buying next, 75% of college students said it would be a Mac.

This is why the stock price has nearly quintupled in the last year and a half.

I wouldn't underestimate the numbers.

Since there are so few major manufacturers nowadays that figure is meaningless, after Dell, HP, IBM and Gateway it isn't hard to be 5th. Consolidation has helped Apple here.

Meaningless too, a sale is a sale is a sale... Apple would be thrilled to get into these markets, I'm sure HP and IBM don't care that a large percentage of their machines are sold as embedded units. Of course this is just another excuse for Apple to claim that it isn't as bad as it seems. Embedded machines probably last even longer than the usual Mac does, POS and other devices usually stay in the same place for over 9-12 years.

Typical Apple marketing talk, I am in this industry, and have yet to hear of a single person that bought a Mac because of PC spyware. As for "100's of viruses" for Linux, I ask you to provide a source. The core of Linux is just a *nix clone, just like for OS X, any proparly configured Linux box will be totally safe when it comes to a virus. As for OS X having a "heck of a lot bigger" installed base than Linux; 3% VS 1% (the 3% includes ALL Apple OS versions so it is probably more 2%-1%), not "a heck of a lot bigger" when the Microsoft domination is at 93%. As for the whole ipod>mac link, the ipod has been around since 2001 and the marketshare of Mac desktops has grown very little, the mac mini has probably helped it a bit, but there certainly isn't much demand for people buying an ipod and then moving to a mac, and why would they, itunes on Windows should work just as well as on a mac, shouldn't it???


Of course they SAY that, it is just a shame they the don't follow through. When they enter the local bestbuy and can buy a $699 laptop that is just as tricked out than a $1399 Apple and is even faster then what do you think they will purchase?


I would. It is all about the ipod. Sooner or later that bubble will burst and the market will be saturated, you can only sell so many ipods.

In the end this whole move to Intel is hilarious. Mac fans have been foaming at the mouth for years about how awesome their G3, G4 and G5 chips are (were) when in the end it all turns out to be BS as Intel is the clear winner. This is extremely humiliating for IBM and every website out there that heralded the G5 as the "winner".

In a few years the MacOS will be nothing more than an add-on pack to Windows Longhorn.

I'm not too sure about this, there are reports that Apple will be using the CPUID and DRM functions in the Intel chips to prevent people from trying this.

I'm pretty sure Apple will do what they can to prevent people from buying a $399 Dell to run OS X instead of a shiny $2000 mac which will be identical on the inside...

How many bytes do you reckon that patch will be?

Oh absolutely. I'm sure it will be hacked in a week. If they don't play their cards right then this is the end of the Apple desktop as we know it, why would someone drop $2000 on a box that Dell or HP can sell for half that...

Even if Mac OS X ran on my box I'm not sure I would use it...

While no doubt hacks will be released to allow at least Windows on the Mac and perhaps OS X on non-Apple hardware, I would not expect hundreds of thousands, much less millions, of users to run out and do so anytime soon after the capability is announced.

If the hacks are even remotely "complicated" or "involved", you'll be looking at only the "hard-core" types doing this. I mean even dual-booting two versions of Windows took some effort in the early days.

apples and oranges. The $500 Mac Mini is comparable to a $399 Dell. Apple's $2K desktops are not identical on the inside to Dell's $399 desktops. Dell's $1500 dekstops may approach resembling Apple's in specs, but not in design.

Time will tell what difference a cheaper chip with less demands for power consumption and heat dispersion will do to lower the price of the boxes.

Marketing talk...

For $499 all I get from Apple is:
1.25GHz PowerPC G4
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 with 32MB DDR video memory
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive
Combo drive
DVI or VGA video output

For $399 this afternoon Dell will sell me:
a 3.0GHz machine (around 3 times more powerful than the slow G4 in the cheapest Mini)
512Mb memory
80Gb HDD
DVD-R drive

Plus they will throw in a 15" Flat panel LCD monitor. Sure, it doesn't look as cute, but money talks.

The $1499 cheapest G5 has these specs:

1.8GHz PowerPC G5
600MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI Slots
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

So, with the exception of the 56k modem ($19) this $1499 has the same specs on paper as the $399 Dell, which even comes with a monitor and more memory.

I simply don't beleive that Apple boxes are so expensive because of a cheaper chip and heat dispersion, the best cooling fan out there is just $20 so Apple must be paying a fortune for G5's...

Apples and oranges indeed.

But...it doesn't look like a kitchen appliance! It doesn't have a halo! People want design!

There are some pretty slick-looking small form factor PC designs coming out.

Admittedly not as slick as the Mac Mini or iMac, but a lot better then the "big beige box".

And some of the boutique aluminium tower PC cases will give the G5 Towers a run for their money.

Acer has a replica of the Mac Mini for those that want design

And yes, some of the case mods out there are amazing, try that on a mac