Steve Jobs, Powered By Intel
Apple CEO Steve Jobs once again wowed the crowd at the annual San Francisco MacWorld Expo but there were no earthshaking announcements. Anyone expecting Jobs to hit an out-of-the-park home run was probably disappointed. But he did hit a stand up double.
The big news this year is the partnership between Apple and Intel. A few years ago, Jobs ridiculed Intel processors as slow and inefficient. When Jobs introduced the Mac G5 in 2003, he called it "the world's fastest personal computer."
Tuesday, smiling as he stood side by side with Intel CEO Paul Otellini, Jobs bragged that the new Intel-equipped iMacs desktop runs two to three times faster than models with the previous PowerPC processor from a joint venture between Motorola and IBM. The new Mac laptop, called the MacBook Pro, is said to be four times faster than the PowerBook G4 and thinner as well.
I'll believe Apple's performance features when I see benchmarks from reliable objective testing labs, but even assuming they turn out to be true, I still won't jump up and down with enthusiasm.
There was a time when processor speed was the main thing consumers and businesses looked for in a PC but those days are over. Today, virtually any computer you buy is fast enough for most basic tasks so long as it's equipped with enough memory and hard drive space and a high-speed connection to the Internet.
True, people who edit video and design space shuttles need all the performance they can get, but most of us can get by with even bargain basement PCs as well as last year's Macs.
That's not to say that Apple didn't make the right decision by going with Intel. Intel brings a number of things to the Mac party including lower power consumption and a road map to the future. Apple was reportedly frustrated by the lack of R&D going into the PowerPC chip. I don't know exactly what Apple is paying for the Intel chips but Intel cranks out chips by the millions, so I suspect there are significant long-term savings.
Listening to Steve Jobs onstage at MacWorld, it sounded almost as if Apple had talked Intel into developing a new and improved chip that would make Macs not only faster than other Macs but faster than anything else on earth. It's not true.
These new Macs may be a major improvement over their predecessors but Apple is using the same basic technology as every other PC maker. Apple can rightfully brag about its "up to 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo processor" but Dell can one-up them by bragging about its "Extreme Edition Dual-Core with HT Technology" running at 3.20GHz.
Apple's strong point has never been its hardware specs. Even if they do occasionally jump ahead of the competition, it's always a short-term victory because it's easy for others to catch up or move ahead.
What makes Apple unique is imbedded in its slogan "Think Different." The company has always stood for innovation in industrial design and great software.
The iPod is a great example. At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, I saw dozens of media players that can outperform the iPod, but that won't stop Apple from dominating the category. Apple's strength lies in its elegance, not its performance.
In the meantime, the rest of the PC industry marches forward. No other company has a charismatic leader like Steve Jobs but with software from Microsoft, processors from Intel and AMD and legions of corporate customers, the combined forces of Dell and Hewlett Packard and the rest of the pack will continue to innovate as well.
They won't make as big a splash in the press but they will ring up bigger sales.
A syndicated technology columnist for more than two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."
By Larry Magid