Interesting People mailing list archives
more on next obvious question
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 19:58:40 -0400
Begin forwarded message:From: "CONNIE GUGLIELMO, BLOOMBERG/ SAN FRANC" <CGUGLIELMO1 () bloomberg net>
Date: June 6, 2005 6:43:49 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] next obvious question
Apple's support for Intel chips doesn't mean consumers will
be able to run the Mac system software on existing Intel-based
PCs or that PC makers will be able to make Intel-based computers
that can run Mac programs, Philip Schiller said, Apple's senior vice
president
of worldwide product marketing, said in an interview today.
The Mac operating system will run on ``Macs that have Intel
chips in them, not on generic PCs,'' Schiller said.
here's the complete story from Bloomberg.
Apple Will Use Intel Chips to Win Sales, Jobs Says (Update5)
By Connie Guglielmo and Ian King
June 6 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steve
Jobs said
the company will switch its computers to Intel Corp. chips, a sign he
plans to
sell cheaper laptops and extend gains in market share.Jobs showed a prototype computer using an Intel chip today at an Apple developer show in San Francisco. Intel chips will debut in Apple's Macintosh personal computers starting by June 2006, and all Macs will use Intel by the end
of 2007, he said.The shift would help Jobs court laptop buyers, a market that's growing more than three times faster than desktop PCs. Intel chips cost less, run faster and generate less heat than the products built by Motorola Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. that Cupertino, California-based Apple has relied on for
21 years.
``The main motivation is more and better processor choices,'' said
Jean-Louis Gassee, who oversaw Apple's products and research-and-
development
efforts from 1981 to 1990. He's now a venture capitalist at Allegis
Capital in
Palo Alto, California.Using Intel chips may enable Apple to make ``smaller, lighter laptops'' and ``more macho higher-performance laptops'' than possible with IBM and Motorola's chip business, spun off as Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Gassee said. That's because the processors create less heat and require less cooling, making it
easier to build the slimmer styles consumers prefer.
Recent Gains
The faster speeds may help build on Apple's recent gains in
market share.
Shipments of Apple PCs surged 45 percent in the U.S. in the first
quarter,
spurring the biggest market share gain in five years, as the success
of its iPod
music players drove new Mac purchases, according to researcher
Gartner Inc.
``The need to do this today is because we want to begin a
transition for
the next couple of years and we want to get our developers started,''
Philip
Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product
marketing, said in
an interview. ``This is about products we envision sometime down the
road that
are only possible for us to make on a microprocessor architecture
like Intel.''
Apple resisted moving to Intel in the past and turned to
Motorola and IBM
for chips to help combat sales lost to ``Wintel'' systems, Intel-
based PCs
running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows. Apple calls its new PC design
``Mactel,''
Schiller said.
`Like Us'
``They're kind of like us,'' Jobs said today. ``They're an
engineering
culture that's passionate about the products. We haven't always
viewed them that
way, but that's what we found.''Apple's support for Intel chips doesn't mean consumers will be able to run the Mac system software on existing Intel-based PCs or that PC makers will be able to make Intel-based computers that can run Mac programs, Schiller said. The Mac operating system will run on ``Macs that have Intel chips in them,
not on generic PCs,'' Schiller said.Not everyone will greet the move to Intel with enthusiasm, said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu in San Francisco. Since Apple marketed its Mac operating system and PowerPC chips as superior to Wintel, Apple may alienate
some customers, Wu said.Intel chief Paul Otellini remarked on that sentiment at the show today, saying ``I suspect there's a whole bunch of you who never thought you'd see this
logo on this stage.''
More Prudent
Mac's success is key. The company in April had extra iPod
inventory for the
first time, said Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster in
Minneapolis.
Shipments of the player, Apple's fastest-growing product, may be
little changed
or decline this month, Mac News Network's AppleInsider.com said last
week.
``Apple is now at a position where they're going to have to wow
people,''
said David Nolan, who manages the $129 million BB&T Mid Cap Growth
Fund in
Charleston, West Virginia. The fund owns Apple shares. ``Investors
are being
more prudent.''More than 3,800 developers came to the conference, probably the largest attendance in the past decade, Jobs said. The two top software developers for
the Mac, Microsoft and Adobe Systems Inc., today said they'll make their programs run on Intel-based Macs.Apple, ranked fifth in U.S. PC sales, boosted its market share to 3.7 percent in the first quarter from 2.6 percent and trails No. 1 Dell Inc. by 28 percentage points. Every point Jobs picks up in PC market share means about $2 billion in revenue, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Bill Shope in New York said.
Price Cuts
Jobs, 50, is courting customers turned off by Apple's higher
prices and
attracted to less-costly Wintel systems. Using Intel may eventually
allow Apple
to cut prices 10 percent to 20 percent, UBS AG analyst Ben Reitzes said.Cnet Networks Inc.'s News.com, the Wall Street Journal and the New York
Times reported the agreement in the past three days.Sales to Apple had been declining and were about 3 percent of revenue, Freescale Chief Executive Michel Mayer said in an e-mail to employees today. IBM will continue development of the Power chip for use in game systems made by Sony Corp., Microsoft and Nintendo Co., the company said in an e-mailed
statement.``IBM is focused on the highest value opportunities in each marketplace,
and our direction with the Power Architecture is consistent with that strategy,'' the company said.Shares of Apple fell 32 cents to $37.92 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have surged 18 percent this year after tripling in 2004. Sixteen analysts suggest buying shares, seven recommend
holding them and none says investors should sell.
Centrino
Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's biggest
semiconductor
maker, introduced a chip package for laptops in March 2003 called
Centrino. By
combining a special chipset, processor and radio, Intel offered
consumers longer
battery life, increased performance and wireless high-speed Internet connectivity.``They are trying to push into what's called the digital home,'' said Bill Gorman, a technology analyst for PNC Advisors in Philadelphia. The firm owns 11.5 million Intel shares, 3.9 million IBM shares and 72,000 Apple shares. ``The
partnership with Apple could be a step in that direction.''The current Mac OS X operating system software has been built to work with Intel chips for five years, Jobs said. The program is based on software for NeXT Computer Inc., a company Jobs founded that moved its operating system to Intel
in 1993.
`Rosetta'
Apple is developing software called ``Rosetta'' that will allow
PowerPC-based Mac programs to run on Intel-based Macs, Jobs said.
Rosetta will
let users run current Mac programs until software developers rewrite
their
products for the Intel chip.Apple says 12,000 programs work with its current operating system, compared
with more than 100,000 for Windows.Apple has delivered 2 million copies of the latest version of OS X, dubbed Tiger, Jobs said. The company is working on a new version called Leopard that will come out in late 2006, just as Microsoft introduces the next version of
Windows, Jobs said.Jobs also said Apple is adding ``podcasting'' audio reports that users download from the Web into its iTunes music software for the iPod. Users will be able to search, download and subscribe to the more than 8,000 podcasts from
amateur reports and major news sources such as National Public Radio. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Farber <dave () farber net> At: 6/ 6 15:32 What will Apple do to stop me from using the Apple enviroment on say a ultralight Sony. They could become a software only comapny or they could try to compete with the mass market hardware guys. Or Intel could roll them either a unique processor. Any ideas? Dave ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as cguglielmo1 () bloomberg net To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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