Apple on Intel Today

Unlike Google's flat-featured performance, Apple's CEO managed a public relations flash: Macintosh computers running on Intel CPUs are available today -- dual-core, at that -- and not six months from now, as originally stipulated by Apple.

Here's the catch for the CAD community: Apple didn't let third parties know about the foreshortened schedule, so companies like Nemetschek, Graphisoft, and IMSI are still looking ahead to a June launch date. (I've asked some of them what the six-month stunt means to their porting plans, and I'll let you know of any responses I get.)

In the meantime, it'll be interesting to watch how the market changes now that Mac OS runs on Intel. Here's my theory:

Macs are selling poorly relative to the total market for PCs [personal computers = desktop and notebook models]. iPods and other entertainment products are selling excellently. I figure this is Jobs giving the Mac its last chance: if sales continue ho-hum on the Intel CPU, then the entire computing division gets ditched (or spun off?), and Apple concentrates on music 'n movies.

This would be a case of the Macintosh being entertained to death.

Comments

[Dave]

Although they don't have a huge market share, Macs have a very loyal following. Especially in the graphics/video/media areas. Also, the possibility of dual booting a Mac with Windows and OSX will keep the desktops alive, if not thriving.

[Jim]

No way Apple will ditch OSX. Relative to the market as a whole, mac is about 5% of the market. In comparision HP is 5.9%. Macs sell less compared to the complete windows market, but not relative to other computer manufacturers. The computer sales are still rising, and with the addition of the ipod, they are doing very well.

[Anthony Frausto]

"Macs are selling poorly relative to the total market for PCs [personal computers = desktop and notebook models]. "

I'm sorry but this is just plain wrong -- mis-information at its worse. Apple has been growing Mac share and outperforming the rest of the entire PC industry (including Dell) by up to 3x. Read the Apple press releases, financial reports and the Gartner and analysts figures. Year-over-year sales (units) are superb for Apple, and much higher than the PC industry overall or any particular major player.

Analysts further agree that the Mac will continue to grow market share for the next 2-3 years (min.). You can only grow share if you are performing "better" than your relative peers, not "poorly" as you indicate.

It would be professional Ralph if you could review your research and repost a correction. Anything less is a disservice to the professionals you serve.

Anthony Frausto-Robledo, Editor
Architosh.com

[Evan Yares]

The Open Design Alliance has DWG libraries for the Intel-based Macs available now (actually, they were available last year.)

We try to be ahead of the market on these things. Nemetschek, Graphisoft, and IMSI are all founding members of the Alliance, and they use our libraries in their applications.

[MacDuff]

Apple drop OS X and stop (or spin off) selling computers??!

Not in this space-time continuum.

As a reader informed you already, their growth rate speaks for itself. As a (presumably) tech-savvy engineer, the author should know better than to play with numbers. Try again, there...

[Christiaan]

"Macs are selling poorly relative to the total market for PCs." Yeah right.

With regard to Apple's early launch, our office is quite happy with an early launch. It will help push other developers to forge ahead with other software. Meanwhile we're quite happy with Nemetchek's announcement that they'll be running native when they say they are. Apple's announcement changes nothing. We wouldn't purchase anything less than a PowerMac in any case.