X-bit labs

Apple Computer Said to be Considering Intel Chips for Macs.

Category: CPU

by Anton Shilov

[ 05/24/2005 | 03:33 PM ]

Apple Computer has been using IBM’s PowerPC chips for at least a decade now and throughout this decade numerous observers and analysts suggested that the company would abandon the usage of those chips in favour of Intel’s processors as a consequence of slow performance growth of IBM’s central processing units. Still, the company remained loyal for its chip supplier. Still, there are again market talks that Apple may switch to Intel.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Apple “was in talks” that could lead to switch the company’s Mac computers to Intel microprocessors, according to Reuters. The story, which cited two business executives with knowledge of recent discussions between the firms and prompted skepticism from some analysts, said Apple was expected to agree to use Intel chips. But the report also claimed that the negotiations could break down or could be a tactic to increase negotiating leverage with Apple’s current chip provider, International Business Machines.

There are those who don’t believe Apple is going to attempt to re-compile all of its software to run on x86 chips from Intel, as all the programs have been designed for IBM’s PowerPC architecture.

“It’s just too much software to have to change,” said Kevin Krewell, editor-in-chief of newsletter Microprocessor Report. “This is just putting more pressure on IBM to fix these problems.”

For Apple Computer a lot of things have changed in the recent quarters. In 2004 Apple’s market share in the USA was 3.2% among all desktops, up from 2.9% in 2003, according to Gartner Dataquest. According to figures from IDC, Apple commanded 2.9% of desktop shipments in the Q4 2004, up from 2.2% in Q3 2004 and from 2.1% in Q4 2003. The figures are believed to reflect the rising success of the iPod that caused growing popularity of Apple’s desktops.