“So the rumours of Apple’s talks with Intel have been simmering for a couple of weeks, and it looks like what nobody thought would really happen just might be happening – at least, that’s the word from CNet. They’re saying ‘sources familiar with the situation’ have learned Apple will be beginning a phased transition from IBM to Intel chips, starting with their lower-end machines (Mac mini) in mid-2006 and migrating the higher-end units (Power Mac) in mid-2007. The official announcement is expected to come at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) in San Francisco this Monday – fitting, as software developers would have to start getting busy rewriting their code to take advantage of the new processors. Well, it’s not like this kind of thing is unprecedented – still, you might want to take it all with a grain of salt until His Steveness takes the stage.”
[ Republished from Engadget ]
Update: Here is an excellent article from Cult of Mac. It talks about one possible reason that Apple may be moving to Intel processors, and how that move would enable an iTunes like movie store. It sounds reasonable to me.
Update #2 (6.6.05 – 8:00am): Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote is still a couple of hours away, but NPR is running a story that makes it sound like Apple’s switch to Intel is a done deal.
Update #3 (6.6.05 – 10:53am): It’s true, Apple will be switching to Intel. See this post.