Apple switching to AMD CPUs would have been shocking, but Intel? Eurgh. I can’t stand Intel, I think they’re an unpleasant smelling business with misleading adverts, poor innovation and monopolistic abuses. Of course, the monopolistic abuses went on before AMD’s far better, cheaper products grabbed so much of the market that Intel dared to upset Microsoft…
The really interesting question is what effect this will have on Microsoft? Apple boxes will be able to run a lot of Windows applications at full speed now, via Wine, or VMWare type applications. Standard PCs will not be able (officially) to run MacOS. Will large businesses start switching to Intel Macs to escape shoddy Windows security without losing their applications?
This is probably a financially good move for Apple in the medium term, but they’re pissing off (pissing on?) the devoted Apple fans, most of whom love existing Apple hardware and dislike Intel intensely. If Apple loses its developer community, they might lose a lot of what makes them Apple, and not just Yet Another PC Company.
Microsoft base their Next Big Thing on PowerPC chips, and Apple move to Intel chips, this is a strange year…
