Apple confirmed the rumors today and announced that they will be switching from the PowerPC processors made by IBM and Motorola to the Intel processors that power nearly all Windows PCs. Many people thought that this day would never happen. My thoughts? It’s about time!

There’s plenty of articles and opinions across the net about this high-profile move, and quite a few are criticizing Apple’s decision. To put it bluntly, these people simply don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t understand that very few people care what processor powers their computer.

Mac users buy Macs for many reasons. They buy Macs for the elegance, stability, and security of the OS X operating system. They buy Macs for Apple’s unparalled focus on style and product design. They buy Macs for the iApps - iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand - fantastic applications which have no comparison in the Windows world. They buy Macs because they don’t want to deal with viruses, spyware, and incessant security updates. They buy Macs for the seamless integration between hardware and software. They don’t buy Macs because Macs have a PowerPC processor - the CPU is, for the most part, irrelevant.

CPUs are Intel’s core business - that’s all they do and that’s what they spend the majority of their waking (and perhaps sleeping) hours thinking about. Desktop/laptop CPUs are simply not the primary focus of IBM and Motorola anymore and so from a product roadmap standpoint, it is easy to see why Intel’s will be much more compelling.

With Intel’s massive volumes of scale and the highly competitive environment for Intel compatible chipsets, Apple should ultimately be able to reduce their costs. This should in turn result in lower priced Macs. Of course, all of the reasons that people buy Macs today will still be present. Unless you open your Mac and peer at its processor, you’d be hard-pressed to know the difference between a PowerPC Mac and an Intel-based one. As Steve Jobs pointed out during today’s announcement, “The soul of the Mac is, and always will be, its operating system.”

I’m very excited about an Intel-based Mac because it will allow me to run both the Mac OS and Windows on the same box. Why the heck would I want to run Windows? Well unfortunately, Pro/E, a high-end mechanical CAD program that I use frequently in product design, does not run on the Mac. Also, since most of the unwashed masses continue to use IE, it is a necessary evil to have to test on IE during web development. In order to do these things presently, I would need a separate Windows PC. However, not only can I not justify that investment, but I’m loathe to the idea of having a hideous looking Dell box sitting on my desk. I’ve been desiring the ability to run Windows on my Mac for quite some time so even though I just bought a new iMac, I’m going to be hightly tempted to upgrade to a MacIntel in a year or two.

Posted by Roger at 8:52 pm.