pkr said:
A couple of thoughts to consider ....
Steve MUST have some big plans up his sleeve for this change ... beyond the much-ballyhooed "cost savings" line. And, while I agree that IBM really gave him no choice, Jobs is not the kind of businessman who allows himself to be put in a corner. I can promise you that he has seen this coming - and probably for quite a long time.
This is all complete B.S. If he "saw it coming" for so long, why only two years ago was he touting total platform superiority? Fastest PC in the world (more B.S.) and all that? Because he believed it.
What Steve saw several years ago was that relying on Moto. was going to ****can Apple in a hurry, they begged and pleaded with IBM, and IBM pretty much custom-made them a whole new chip out of the Power4. Insanely great things were supposed to happen after that. Like dual 3.0GHz in a year (from mid-2003). Didn't happen. You know why? Because Microsoft and Sony moved in almost immediately, and the folks at IBM said "Hmmm...we're making a few million chips, at cost, for Apple. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft each will make us more money apiece than Apple will. We hit a bump in the road, and Jobs tells the whole world we screwed up. Sony and Microsft, on the other hand, give us more money, greater prestige, and tout our technology as the world's greatest. Why the hell are we still in business with Apple?" So they dropped the ball. On purpose. Steve got some egg on his face, and probably threatened them with a jump. IBM said "whatever". Steve or one of his lackeys deliberately leaked info. to the WSJ (I wonder if Steve will sue himself for breaching NDAs) saying "Apple's gonna jump!" IBM went ::shrug::.
So now Intel is the Wave of the Future. It's complete B.S. The more I read, the more painfully clear that is. We know squat about what Intel has in store for Apple. If it's just more x86, Apple is getting the
least innovative, scalable, inexpensive, and advanced processors on the market. Because they
have no choice. Intel is nothing but long pipelines and brute force. They simply cannot continue to jack up clock rates and pull the usual tricks out of their hat and keep their mobile advantage. IBM and FreeScale could wipe the floor with Intel (and will in about a year, if Apple could have waited) if they chose to. They didn't because there's nothing in it for them. IBM dumped Apple. Not the other way around.
Get it through your thick skulls, Mac Religionists. This isn't bad or good so much as it is completely essential for Apple's mere survival. How good or bad PPC woulda, coulda, shoulda been for Apple is now completely moot because IBM no longer gives a steaming turd about spending money on a no-profit business with a company run by a control freak who publically disses them. Make lemonade if it calms your nerves, but keep in mind that we're in this mess because there's
nowhere else to go. There's absolutely
nothing that says we won't be in the same mess in a few years. Because Apple has no options. Get your collective heads out of your arses and at least acknowledge the truth of the situation. Only then can you make wise buying decisions. Don't believe a word of what Steve says right now. Keynotes are pure politicking and theater. These are cutthroat businessmen up on that stage who'll lie, cheat, and stab anyone in the back if it means more profits, or, in this case, survival. No one at Apple is a messiah, and not a one of them saw this coming two years ago. What happens in the future is very much up in the air.
Get a grip, and for the love of Pete, be skeptical before you throw your cash away again. Hold onto your old Mac for a while, and see what happens; or buy a replacement if you must as a heavily discounted refurb. Then keep an eye out. Be ready to jump to Windows or Linux if you have to, because
none of us can say for sure how this will play out.
