Headline Feeds
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) on Monday officially completed its transition to Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) microprocessors, with CEO Steve Jobs pulling the wraps off new products during a speech at the firm's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
The company unveiled the new Mac Pro: a quad Xeon, 64-bit desktop workstation featuring two new Dual-Core Intel Xeon processors running up to 3.0 GHz, along with a new system architecture that delivers up to twice the performance of the Power Mac G5 Quad.
Jobs also introduced an updated Xserve server based on two dual-core 64-bit Intel Xeon processors.
"Apple has successfully completed the transition to using Intel processors in just seven months -- 210 days to be exact," Jobs said. "And what better product to complete it with than the new Mac Pro, the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about?"
Ahead of Time
Jobs does have something to brag about, according to JupiterResearch analyst Joe Wilcox. When Apple first announced the transition to Intel processors last year, the company predicted earnest development would begin this summer. Instead, Apple released its first Intel-based Macs in January and has now completed the transition earlier than expected.
"Apple thought out the transition from a software perspective and executed very well along those lines, beating its own expectations," Wilcox told MacNewsWorld. Wilcox gives much of the credit to Apple's Rosetta emulation program that allows Intel-based PCs to run software designed for the PowerPC Macs.
Apple also instituted Universal Binary Code (UBC), which allows software developers to write programs that can run on both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. Quark has already developed an application using UBC. Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) are still making the transition.
Jam-Packed Mac
The Mac Pro, available now, features processors based on Intel's Core microarchitecture. The standard configuration includes two 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 series processors and 1 GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully buffered ECC memory, expandable up to 16 GB. It is priced at US$2,499 -- about $800 less than the G5.
It also features a new direct attached storage solution for cable-free, snap-in installation of up to four 500 GB Serial ATA hard drives for a total of 2 TB of internal storage -- the most ever on a Mac -- and support for two optical drives to simultaneously read and/or write to CDs and DVDs.
Every Mac Pro comes standard with the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT with 256 MB of video memory, providing built-in support for dual displays and Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display.
The Xserve 1U server will be available in October, starting at $2,999. Equipped with quad Xeon processors ranging from 2.0 GHz to 3.0 Ghz, it will support up to 2.25 TB of storage and consume as little as 65 watts of power.
Jobs also demonstrated features of Apple's upcoming "Leopard" operating system, Mac OS 10.5, to developers at the conference. The company plans to ship the OS beginning next spring.
Moving In on Microsoft
Some say Apple is moving in on Microsoft's territory. That is at least partially true, suggests data from JupiterResearch. Most of the Windows PC erosion is occurring among households with more than one computer, the firm reports. Households with multiple PCs are more likely than single PC households to have a computer running Mac OS.
"We are seeing households that are considering a second or third PC purchase looking at Mac as an option. There are a lot of factors influencing their decision," Wilcox noted. "One is Apple's success with the iPod and the popularity of the brand. At the same time, Microsoft has failed to get its new operating system into the market."
