Re: [NTLK] [OT] deja vu, ipod gets its own division

From: Scot McSweeney-Roberts (newton_at_mcsweeney-roberts.co.uk)
Date: Tue May 25 2004 - 05:52:36 PDT


Jim Witte wrote:
>>Why 'analysts' and 'industry experts' ever think that it would be a
>>good
>>idea for Apple either switch the Macs to x86
>>
>>
>
> Maybe cost. But seeing as how IBM has apparently put an awful lot of
>work into the G5 in close partnership with Apple (see my post), perhaps
>not. And (if MacOSX and software is indeed ported to Intel) it might
>have been easier to just go with Intel than develop the G5, considering
>the contentions between Moto and IBM over the future of the PowerPC.
>
>
>
Does anybody know how much more expensive a G5 is versus the
'equivalent' Intel chip (which I believe would be the Itanium)?
Especially in manufacturing volumes? I've tried google but I haven't
come up with anything.

I don't believe the choice of processor has much to do with the cost of
a Mac - most of the rest of the Mac is going to be similar to what's in
a pc (the PCI hardware, IDE, USB etc) and I doubt the G5 processor is
that much more expensive than the Itanium.

I think the savings for Apple at best would be marginal, especially as
they would probably have to lower prices for the hardware to PC levels
as it'd be easier to compare the 'ItaniumMac' with hardware from HP and
Dell and all the no name clone makers.

I think the best argument against going to x86 is to look at NeXT and Be
- both did exactly what 'analysts' think Apple should do and both
ceased to exist. I just wonder who'd end up buying Apple if they went
down the x86 route.

>>or drop the Mac hardware line and only sell MacOS for generic x86 I'll
>>never know - the only
>>reason I can come up with for them to say that is that they're either
>>not very good at analysis or that they aren't really experts in the
>>industry.
>>
>>
>
> Or they're spreading dis-information for whatever reason.
>
>
>
If it's deliberate, it's going to be because the analysts are being paid
by someone to sing the right tune, in which case it's neither analysis
or expert opinion, it's advertisement and really should be marked as
such. At least some people are starting to take notice of these
'analysts'- grokshill.net has started tracking them, and while it's
Linux oriented I think the Mac community should join in as well.

Scot

-- 
This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries
Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/
WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/


This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue May 25 2004 - 15:30:02 PDT