Macs on Intel: The 80% Factor
June 8th, 2006Just think about it: A year ago, Steve Jobs promised that Macs would switch to Intel before the end of 2007. To think that this daunting process is nearly all done 18 months early. Right now, in case you tuned in late, everything but the Power Mac and Xserve have been upgraded, and since Intel’s new desktop chips are due beginning next month, it’s reasonable to expect that upgrade will be completed by fall with few serious complications.
But it’s a good time to look back at what Apple has wrought, particularly in light of the mixed reaction to its Intel switch. Today, it seems that it was the only logical choice, but I’m sure some of you wondered whether Jobs was pilling some sort of scam with such a vast change in direction. No doubt developers felt the shock and awe, even if a few had an inkling of what was coming. Here they’d spent years moving their work to Mac OS X, fine-tuning performance, dealing with the problems occasioned by the regular stream of updates, and now they had to do it all over again.
