Mactel and FUD?

I've got one word for it, FUD. Oh wait that's three words, Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Bill Gates got really good at using FUD and I fear that Steve (formerly Steve of the Reality Distortion Field) is giving it a spin as well!

It's been a month since the bombshell and the dust has settled but has the FUD? Not for me it hasn't.

What were the two major announcements at this years 2005 Worldwide Developers Conference again? Oh yeah...The next version of the Mac OS will be called "Leopard" and Apple will be using intel chips in the entire Macintosh range by 2007.

The majority of Mac users polled immediately prior to the announcement did not want Apple to move to Intel processors but like the Analysts afterwards most thought the move as positive for Apple's long term future. Even I can see that from Apple's point of view it makes good business sense but on a personal level, will it dilute my Macintosh experience?

Earlier this year Steve revealed in a Fortune magazine interview that Apple had nearly missed the ITunes music store (ITMS) opportunity because they were too busy working on iMovie (Adobe had refused to develop a Mac version of the video editing application, Premiere). In the same interview Steve confided that major PC manufacturers had been lobbying Apple to license OS X for PC as they were sick of the ongoing security issues in Windows. Apple is now well ahead in both areas, video editing and legal music downloads.

Meanwhile Microsoft are busy copying Tiger and dreaming that mobile phones will become iPod killers. With so many positive indicators for Apple, Steve must be wondering if he really could make OS X the dominant desktop, and topple Microsoft.

Now back to this Mactel business...

Fear:

The move to intel processors will probably deliver faster chips for Desktops and portables but is it the beginning of the end? Apple hardware may become irrelevant. We know now that OS X can run on PC hardware (thanks Steve) despite Phil Schiller's statements that Mac OS X will only ever run on Apple machines.

The outward or visible battle may well be between the various operating systems and hardware manufacturers, but there must also be a right royal battle going on inside Steve's head.

Should I license OS X to everyone? Why should only "The Rest of Us" benefit from such an elegant OS? Hey! I could make a couple of Billion $ overnight... Hmmm...

Most agree Apple is a hardware company first and the OS just helps them sell their hardware, but if you own the best OS in the world, the temptation is there, No?

My biggest fear is that Apple will become just an Operating System/Software company, and that they'll then become dominant and everyone will hate them, just as we now love to hate Microsoft.

Uncertainty:

Should I upgrade to a better Mac anytime soon with all these winds of change blowing about? Will Apples hardware sales and market share suffer while people like me wait for a 4+ Ghz Mactel?

Doubt:

How well will OS X and existing applications run under the Rosetta emulation software? (Transitive's QuickTransit code morphing engine) Will the AltiVec code and Classic applications come along for the emulated ride? At this point in time they're not.

Read about Rosetta here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software)

There are two theories put forward for the chip change:

Theory 1
Apple needs the intel chips with their embedded DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology.

They need DRM in order to win over Hollywood and enter the world of downloadable Video, just as Apple have already done with Music and the iTunes Music Store. (buzzwords - anamorphic streaming, H.264 encoding).

Theory 2
IBM pissed Steve off so much, first they supply Microsoft with the new chips for their Xbox, then they can't supply the promised 3Ghz PPC chip or a cool running G5 chip for a PowerBook, so Steve just tells them to get lost.

Closing thoughts...

Microsoft will now sell more Xboxes with IBM PPC chips than Apple would Macs, so while Microsoft is mutating into a hardware company, Is Apple becoming a software company? Look at the iLife Suite. As well as registering the name Mactel, Apple has also registered the name Numbers. Is there an Excel killer in the iWorks?

Has Steve finally decided to let the cat out of the bag? So many questions! At least we've got FUD!

For a lighter look at WWDC go to:
http://blog.hardmac.com/archives/forget-about-osx-on-intel-here-is-the-real-wwdc-2005-scoop