IBM buying Apple is like Comcast buying Disney, they are two totally different companies with different ideas, goals, and morals. I can see IBM starting to sell PB, PM, and XServes on their website jointly with Apple, much like the Apple + HP iPod, but I can't see IBM making their own PPC systems and run Apple software, it's just really odd.
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IBM/Apple Deal?
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IBM's getting rid of the last vestige of the retail PC market only to dive right in and buy a company expanding their retail presence with Apple would be like Circuit City dumping CarMax (or whatever car outlet they owned for awhile) then turning around and buying AutoNation.
LimeiBook86 said:
Why, when they already have a couple of Unix based (and I mean that as in Bell labs Unix, not BSD) operating systems, which they sell for profit. IBM wouldn't be making machines (uh, seeing as they sold their PC business...). More likely Apple would start producing business-oriented systems to run one of IBM's OS's.
Maybe...OS X on x86?...only time will tell
That doesn't make any sense. IBM makes Power-based systems, which are not compatable with X86 (an Intel platform), and Apple doesn't want OSX on X86, either.
What does this mean for IBM's XL PPC 970 compilers? Could they ever ship them free with Apple's dev tools/XCode?
Just imagine...
All those Sunday morning commercials could be about the Apple Xserve and Power book rather then blade servers and think pads. And... Nasa could finally dump those old think pads on the space shuttle for shiny new G5 laptops!!!!!
All those Sunday morning commercials could be about the Apple Xserve and Power book rather then blade servers and think pads. And... Nasa could finally dump those old think pads on the space shuttle for shiny new G5 laptops!!!!!
how does news like this make microsoft feel? they have been very very quiet considering all of apple's recent good fortune. makes me kinda nervous.
eSnow said:
Yeah, it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense. IBM realizes teh money to be made is now in the processor and the OS, not the box itself. So, either you give up the field or figure out a way to win it back. They already failed with OS/2. Apple has done alright, but what would IBM do for Apple?
The only way an alliance makes sense is for IBM to develop servers running Mac software, or at least that are compatible. IBM provides the server-side solutions, and has "corporate legitimacy" (no one ever got fired for buynig IBM), while Apple continues to sell its desktops. Together, they can leverage into the corporate environment.
I doubt Apple will be bought, but a closer relationship between Apple and IBM is likely, assuming that IBM continues to deliver with faster, better processors that compete with the x86 procs.
Apple's greatest vulnerability is it's reliance on a non x86 (i.e. smaller volume) processor. As long as IBM has that loose end securely tied up, a close relationship is beneficial to Apple.
Apple's greatest vulnerability is it's reliance on a non x86 (i.e. smaller volume) processor. As long as IBM has that loose end securely tied up, a close relationship is beneficial to Apple.
Not impossible... we'll have to wait and see...
If this happens at all, it will go something like this, so says TheWama:
IBM has a strong incentive to expand it's share of the chip market, which is currently stuck mostly to server-level applications.
Apple has a robust, impressive consumer-level OS, but is, for the most part, ignored by businesses, despite respectable server-level products. They are also constantly hampered by the perception of being a niche OS, and the implications that carries for third-party software development.
If IBM licenses Apple's OS for corporate PCs, this will mean added cashflows for apple from a market they weren't even competing over. This will also mean adding an air of respectability among the corporate market that IBM has and Apple, for the most part, does not. Greater market share for OS X, that comes without canabilizing Apple's consumer PC sales, is a huge boon to Apple.
IBM, in return, gets greatly increased PPC sales, because they can now market it to the corporate workstation crowd, as well as supporting Apple's sales. This can take the form of a joint project between Apple and IBM.
It does *seem* to make sense for Apple and IBM, based on the little I know about the situation. Whether it actually happens, well, we'll have to wait and see.
If this happens at all, it will go something like this, so says TheWama:
IBM has a strong incentive to expand it's share of the chip market, which is currently stuck mostly to server-level applications.
Apple has a robust, impressive consumer-level OS, but is, for the most part, ignored by businesses, despite respectable server-level products. They are also constantly hampered by the perception of being a niche OS, and the implications that carries for third-party software development.
If IBM licenses Apple's OS for corporate PCs, this will mean added cashflows for apple from a market they weren't even competing over. This will also mean adding an air of respectability among the corporate market that IBM has and Apple, for the most part, does not. Greater market share for OS X, that comes without canabilizing Apple's consumer PC sales, is a huge boon to Apple.
IBM, in return, gets greatly increased PPC sales, because they can now market it to the corporate workstation crowd, as well as supporting Apple's sales. This can take the form of a joint project between Apple and IBM.
It does *seem* to make sense for Apple and IBM, based on the little I know about the situation. Whether it actually happens, well, we'll have to wait and see.
IBM and Apple are probably sharing technology for the current PPC970 platform -- people tend to think the Northbridges are the same, which helps Apple split R&D costs. And get out of the rut of being stuck with a generation of Northbridge for 18-24 months.Le Big Mac said:
They have shared technology on workstations in the past, the CHRP workstation from IBM -- the RS/6000 with quad 604s.
Servers is something different right now, lots of threads on those.
But there is a hole right between the x86 and Power Workstations in IBMs line-up -- it'll be interesting to see if it ends up being something like a PowerMac, or a Cell-based workstation.
Tulse said:
LOL, yeah probably. I wonder how much longer Apple and Adobe can be 'friends' for as well...
Personally, I think this is a good thing. With Apple as their "numero uno" you create a great many things.
For one, IBM no longer needs to push Microsoft Windows on their products. They can build a new OS or use OS X (because its the same processor...right?)
Also what you create now is a schism in the company...a good schism. You have a company that has a very serious and uniform business as well as an area filled with crazy radicals. Either way, they both are revolutionaries and pioneers in their field.
I like "Big Blue" IBM, I like Apple.
To me, this rocks.
Mike
Also, won't this mean that IBM will not need to make their chip with that pallidumwhatever thing that is above root and will end lives?
For one, IBM no longer needs to push Microsoft Windows on their products. They can build a new OS or use OS X (because its the same processor...right?)
Also what you create now is a schism in the company...a good schism. You have a company that has a very serious and uniform business as well as an area filled with crazy radicals. Either way, they both are revolutionaries and pioneers in their field.
I like "Big Blue" IBM, I like Apple.
To me, this rocks.
Mike
Also, won't this mean that IBM will not need to make their chip with that pallidumwhatever thing that is above root and will end lives?
Apple Hobo said:
That would be fantastic. While gcc has excellent cross-OS compatibility, it's hard to beat a compiler designed and produced by the same company who designs and produces the CPU. I noticed an approximate 50% speedup on some simple home-brew bioinformatics C code when compiled using the xlc beta versus Apple's customised gcc on my G5.
I wonder if it is possible to compile OS X using xlc, or if it only compiles using gcc. Any developers out there that know? Is OS X/Cocoa difficult to develop for using xlc? Is it really a gcc-only affair?
I think IBM wants to make its own version of a mac aimed at the business server market not at the consumer market. Apple ignores the business market but with IBM backing them they might be able to get a foot hold. I doubt that IBM would merge with apple though they are to different.
asif786 said:
I'd really like to see Apple gain some kind of traction in the corporate workstation market. Maybe a daring, trend-conscious Fortune 500 company like FedEx -- which has been rumored to want to switch -- will take the plunge and switch completely over to Mac. Then when they start talking about total cost of ownership, Apple/IBM will be able to pick and choose what kinds of companies they want to go into.
oingoboingo said:
Apple and Adobe haven't been friends since like 1997. A huge part of the blame lies squarely at the feet of Apple and the way they treated even high-profile developers like Adobe.
Today they have a working relationship where Apple publishes Final Cut to show Adobe they don't own the Video processing market and Adobe retaliating by publishing benchmarks which show a lead of x86 over PPC.
ScottDodson said:The day OS X (which I pray to god it doesn't happen, and I KNOW it won't) comes loaded on an X86, is the day I never use a computer again...Please don't quote me on that one
Sorry, I couldn't help it...
DavidCar said:
Bill Gates is onscreen instead of Big Brother. An IBM exec (maybe CEO Sam Palmisano?) runs into the auditorium filled with Windows users rebooting their Creative Zens. He is persued by a team of lawyers representing George Orwell's estate. In his hand instead of a hammer is an IBM Thinkpad. Simultaneously representing IBM's urge to offload its PC manufacturing operations and to extract revenge on Microsoft over the OS/2 debacle, Palmisano hurls the Thinkpad at the screen, destroying it and shattering Bill's image. The lights come on, Palmisano fends off the lawyers by waving the 15-volume set of AIX 5L operating manuals at them, and Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller distribute old-stock 15GB 3G iPods and 'Please please please subscribe to .Mac!!!' flyers to the former Windows users. The advertisement fades out with the words "IBM and Apple...it won't be anything like Taligent we PROMISE!"
Can't wait for it to air!