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by Wolf Paulus.
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While it was tempting, I did not participate in last weekend's blog frenzy about Apple's plan to transition to Intel-X86 processors.
Now that a couple days have passed and emotions don't run as high anymore, we can start talking about what this could mean for software developers and the broader IT market.
Like Steve Jobs pointed out in the Steve Note, Apple is not going to put Intel chips in all Mac, iBook, and PowerBook models at the same time but will probably start with the inexpensive, entry level systems like Mac Mini, eMac and iBooks.
Funny how Steve Jobs mentions Computing-Power per Watts. Performance wise, the PowerPC is probably quite comparable with the Xeon and Athlon processors. More interestingly, it should consume much less power then the x86 architecture. Read the details at osnews.
The Pentium-M for instance is able to run with less heat dissipation and power consumption but it pays a high price (low performance) for it.
Apple may also not trust in the speed the Intel (-M) chips are delivering and therefore, it may just take a little longer, before we see the high-end, PowerBooks and PowerMac being equipped with Intel x86 processors.
The fact that developers who have ordered the Transition-Kit are being asked to not run and publish performance tests is another indication that the performance of the x86 is just not there yet.
Java, Cocoa, and Carbon Applications
Having developed you application in Java finally pays-off, all the Java programs will run on Apple's new hardware platform without any tweaking. Unfortunately, I only know of a small number of successful Java apps for the Mac and a quick look into my application folder confirms, most apps I'm using daily are Cocoa or Carbon apps.
Besides the well-known apps from Microsoft and Marco(media/Ado)be, most of my favorite Mac apps are from rather small shops. Will all, most, or at least some of these guys go and pay for the Transition-Kit ($999) and test their apps rigorously on two platforms now?
R.I.P. Carbon
A lot of work is required to transition applications that are based on Apple's Carbon Framwork. It probably means that the transition will be mark the death of Carbon. Only a few if any new projects will be started that rely on the Carbon Framework.
QA will hate the Mac even more
If you are not in the lucky situation to program just for the Mac and the Mac is already more or less an afterthought, you will find it even harder to convince your boss, Product Management, or whoever that it makes sense to also support the Mac. The QA department will not love you if you tell them that they now have to test on two Mac platforms.
Contradiction
The transition to Intel processors makes it probably more like for some users to buy an Apple computer however, it doesn't seem to lead to more applications being developed specifically for OS X.
The biggest question however is, how long will Apple be able to justify building a proprietary system on a common technology. Apple doesn't care if you install Linux on a PowerMac today and they will not care if you install Windows on next year's PowerMac. However, will we see Mac OS X running on a non-Apple computer any time soon? With the move to intel chips, the operating system, OSX, become the single differentiatior, besides the design of course.
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