PowerBook is dead; MacBook Pro is here (Intel-based)

[Asher]

Also some weird things about Ubuntu..."makefile" isn't a standard package.

[Verto]

So, I wonder what Apple's got planned for their anniversary? So far, speculation includes:

1.) "Media Center"/iHome Mac Mini
2.) Video iPod (not iPod w/ Video)
3.) Reintroduction of the Cube, updated as a headless iMac.
4.) Replica of the Lisa, Apple II, etc
5.) Revelation of a Steve Jobs cloning facility.
6.) Various iPod accessories, cousins, etc (iPod Boombox)
7.) Apple Plasma/LCD TVs, to go along with #1

[Agathon]

The boombox thing seems a given.

God knows who'll buy it.

[Q Classic]

The same people who buy every iProduct.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
The same people who buy every iProduct.

The usual gang of flaming homosexuals...

[Agathon]

....and other perverts...

[Q Classic]

Agathon:
Link

[Asher]

It gets better.

First the sluggish Mac sales were because the Intel Macs were coming. Now what's the excuse?

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0601intelearly.html

Sluggish iMac sales suggest early Intel transition challenges

By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor
January 24, 2006 - Apple's decision to unleash Intel-based Mac systems six months ahead of schedule is proving less successful than the company anticipated. Two weeks following the Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote, sources report that sales of the Intel-based iMac are lower than Apple expected, even taking into account the seasonal post-holiday sales dip, suggesting the 2006 transition to Intel may be more difficult than the company has expressed.
advertisement

Compounding matters, sales of both PowerPC-based iMacs and PowerBooks have trailed off considerably. While Apple markets the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro as two-times and four-times faster than their PowerPC predecessors, respectively, the company continues to sell those PowerPC counterparts for the same price as the new Intel systems.

It's that very performance claim that sources say is negatively impacting sales of the new systems, since very few applications run natively and can take advantage of the new Core Duo processor. Extensive benchmarks by Ars Technica revealed that while the iMac Core Duo is 20 to 40 percent faster than its G5 predecessor when performing native tasks (QuickTime conversion, iTunes CD ripping), it's anywhere from 10 to 50 percent slower when running non-native applications through Rosetta. Informal benchmarks of the new MacBook Pro, conducted at Macworld Expo, found that system to be 30 to 150 percent faster than its PowerBook predecessor when running native tasks, short of Apple's 400 percent claims.

The earlier release of the Intel-based systems—"a little ahead of schedule," in the words of Apple CEO Steve Jobs—caught some developers off guard. Last June, Apple only told developers that the new Intel systems would begin shipping by June 2006, suggesting that they might have a year to convert their applications to Universal Binaries. Sources report that many prominent software developers have expressed their displeasure over the move to Apple management.

Major software vendors like Adobe and Microsoft have been careful not to shed any light on when their popular and performance-critical programs will be ready as Universal Binaries. Both companies' products are extensively Carbonized—a result of Apple's transition to Mac OS X—which are far more difficult to convert to Unviersal Binaries than Cocoa applications written from the ground up for OS X.

Apple's decision to release Intel-based Macs early surely made sense from a component perspective, most observers say, but the company may now have to sit on the sidelines and watch as third-parties conduct a significant portion of customers' transition to the new systems for the time being.

Meanwhile, Apple stock continues to fall.

[Verto]

It would have been a lot more effective if Apple had made sure that a wide, if not all encompassing, selection of software titles available native for Intel. As it is now, with the Universal Binary etc, of course there is going to be a stumble towards 99% market share.

As for the stock price...it's still got another 50$ to go before it matches Microsoft's.

But honestly, Apple's stock is just normalizing. No need to orgasm every time AAPL drops.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Verto
It would have been a lot more effective if Apple had made sure that a wide, if not all encompassing, selection of software titles available native for Intel. As it is now, with the Universal Binary etc, of course there is going to be a stumble towards 99% market share.

As for the stock price...it's still got another 50$ to go before it matches Microsoft's.

But honestly, Apple's stock is just normalizing. No need to orgasm every time AAPL drops.

It really doesn't matter. Most of the stuff that pros use is not yet Intel native, but it will come. For ordinary consumers the non native stuff they need will run perfectly well under Rosetta.

Blizzard has been pretty good. An Intel version of WoW will be in the next patch.

The Apple Death Knell Counter should really be retired.

[Q Classic]

On the other hand, I'm kinda tired of the "ZOMFG APPLE'S TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!11" thing as well.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Verto
As for the stock price...it's still got another 50$ to go before it matches Microsoft's.

Err...you do realize that "matching" Microsoft's price means nothing? Microsoft has way more shares out there, thus the price is lower.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
It really doesn't matter. Most of the stuff that pros use is not yet Intel native, but it will come. For ordinary consumers the non native stuff they need will run perfectly well under Rosetta.

That's has a lot to do with this, doesn't it? Tell me what a laptop and an iMac have to do with professionals, again.

And just because it's called the "MacBook Pro" doesn't mean it's for professionals.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Asher

Err...you do realize that "matching" Microsoft's price means nothing? Microsoft has way more shares out there, thus the price is lower.

Yes, it means about as much as Apple's stock dropping in the days after everyone and their three-legged dog overhyped Steve Jobs' keynote.

And it was a joke to boot.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
On the other hand, I'm kinda tired of the "ZOMFG APPLE'S TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!!!!11" thing as well.

I don't believe I've ever posted such a thread.

On the other hand... it's spelled "ZOMFG!11!!!11"