There's been a bunch of speculation as to what Apple's moves in the processor space will be, and what they mean - now that CNET has reported that they are making an intel based move. Of course, if they wanted to stay "out there" they could announce that they are adopting the itanium. If that happens, I can guarantee that you'll hear shrieks of pain from our VM engineers :)

In any case, there's the requisite Slashdot story, and this batch of speculation from Russell Beattie (and I'm sure that there's tons more that I'm missing). Some of the speculation is just nuts - witness Russell Beattie's maunderings:

Here's my bet: it'll be OSX Server that runs on x86 only. Everyone's hoping for x86 lappys or just a version of Tiger that'll run on everything, but I don't think it's going to happen. Or, here's another idea: Tiger Express. A version of Tiger which will run on your Wintel box and show you how nice it is on the other side... Maybe even an Ubuntu-style "live CD" that people can pop in and use on their Windows boxes without having to install a thing?

None of that makes much sense, IMHO. The original story gives a timeline for adoption - low end stuff in 2006, everything else by 2007. That makes sense, I think - if they could get access to cheaper hardware components, the price of their low end systems could drop (or stay constant as they beefed them up). The thing that's held me from buying a Mac is price/performance - visits to CompUSA and BestBuy consistently show that I can get an x86 box for $500 to $1000 less, but get twice the RAM and twice the HD. I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices that, and Apple's financial folks have to have picked up on it as well.

We'll certainly find out Monday - at which point all this speculation could be so much mush. The CNET story only mentions x86 chips in passing, and intel is desperate to find a meaningful partner for the itanium. I can definitely imagine Apple taking that route, although doing so wouldn't really help them in the price area much.