Apple is an $8 billion company
I realize that the press treats Apple like a small and scrappy company, but it is an $8 billion company, in the high 200s on the Fortune 500 list. It needs to execute.
They have contracts to sell devices. Who knows, they may have contracts to deliver G4 iBooks to schools or government installations.
Remember how they started shipping machines that couldn't book OS 9, they maintained OS 9 booting G4s for another year or so.
While graphic designers are the visible "artsy" crowd for Mac, Adobe will rev all their products FAST. It isn't a terribly hard port compared to the 9->X port, and Adobe already HAS x86 code for anything that is hand optimized. While it isn't a trivial rev, the one year transition was more than enough for them.
Remember the audio crowd? Apple has been the leader in that market, and while the OS X transition was painful for them, these guys did it, albeit slowly. Remember, there are markets that need STABLE systems. If Photoshop crashes, it's annoying. If you lose a live-concert recording, you're screwed.
Apple will maintain G4-based Macs (and maybe G5, depending on the deal with IBM) for at LEAST 1 year beyond their phase out for anyone that needs to add Macs and can't make the x86 trasition. They also landed a bunch of government contracts, like the Navy Xserve deal, and they are going to fulfill those. The Navy will NOT want to make a PPC->x86 transition until their next procurement process, so Apple wants to sell machines.
Apple sells $8 BILLION dollars worth of stuff, and it isn't all based upon Job's giving speeches.
My Powerbook G4 1Ghz is 3 years old in October. The accounting lifespan of a machine is 3 years, because that's how long they generally last. Those with 800 MHz PB G4s can upgrade to 1.67Ghz, and get twice their old 3 year old machine. For my era, there is not upgrade, you normally get a machine 2-3x fast when you upgrade. A dual-core powerbook is a REAL possibility. It is also possible that they ship Powerbook G4s AND Powerbook x86s (or xBooks/xStations and retire the Power name) in the beginning.
Remember the audio crowd? A lot of them use Powerbooks with fancy Firewire hookup boxes. Remember, when the Powermacs wouldn't ship more than 3 slots, people moved from hardware cards which dominated the industry for years, to Firewire breakout boxes.
You lose sales if you can't sell them usable hardware, and if their stuff is still PPC only...
