Posted on 09/19/2005 12:39:19 AM PDT by Swordmaker
September 15, 2005 - Apple's Power Mac G5 line will see an upgrade in the near future, possibly before the close of the month, sources have informed Think Secret. Poor sales of the current models is likely the driving force behind the premature revision, which will come less than six months since Apple last upgraded the line.
The April Power Mac G5 revision saw only an incremental boost in performance as the top-end model went from dual-2.5GHz processors to dual-2.7GHz. At the disappointment of many potential customers, Apple continued using the single-core PowerPC 970FX processors in the G5s and not the highly anticipated dual-core PowerPC 970MP chips, which were not ready at the time. The 970MP is said to deliver performance improvements of 50-80% in many tasks over the single-core 970FX.
In July, IBM announced the PowerPC 970MP processor and a low-power version of the PowerPC 970FX on the heels of Apple's announcement that the company would be phasing out PowerPC chips and embracing Intel processors. Speculation at the time suggested the driving motivation behind Apple's switch was the company's frustration with IBM's inability to meet performance goals, specifically the 3GHz mark that Apple CEO Steve Jobs said would be met in mid-2004.
A 3GHz Mac has yet to ship and likely will not even once the Power Mac G5 line is updated. IBM's July announcement noted that the PowerPC 970MP would be available in speeds of 1.4GHz to 2.5GHz. Apple is expected to adopt the 970MP at least at the high-end of the new Power Mac G5 line.
Compounding problems with the current Power Mac G5 line was a nearly month-long shipping delay earlier this quarter with the dual-2.7GHz systems, which sources report experienced technical glitches. Unreleased support documents indicate a number of the 2.7GHz systems were coming off the line with graphics and PMU issues, although it has been speculated that a shortage of the high-end processors could be to blame as well. Regardless, sources involved with Apple sales acknowledge that the April revision, effectively a stop-gap measure put in place to give the stale line-up a facelift, has largely failed.
The upgraded Power Mac G5 line could be introduced as early as next week around Apple Expo, despite Apple's withdrawal from the keynote presentation.
No PowerBook revision?
Sources are also reporting that the pending Power Mac revision will be the last Mac upgrade of the calendar year. Contrary to other reports, Apple's PowerBook line, last revised in February with only incremental upgrades, will likely not see an upgrade before Macworld Expo San Francisco in January 2006, at the earliest.
Details on the next PowerBook have thus far eluded Think Secret sources.
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I doubt that sales will improve much, ahead of release of the MAC-INTEL line. Apple really shot themselves in the foot, I think, making the official announcement so far in advance of the first realease.
Apple had to give software developers enough lead time to plan for the transition - and they started sending Intel-based Macs to developers on the day of the announcement.
If they tried to sell Macs with no software available - they would have gotten into some real trouble.
It seems to me the transition period is a no-win. They have to give enough lead time for developers, but that also gives consumers time to save their pennies, unless someone's G4 gets hit by lightning and they just have to have a new machine before the Intel switch.
Yes, they did have to give developers time, but we could have had many months of enjoyable speculation about the new product line, such as:
Is MacIntel going to be a main line of development?......Are they going to be high end or low end machines?.....Which line will Apple terminate first, the PPC machines, or the MacIntel machines?......etc, etc, etc.
After several weeks of running all three side-by-side, I am amazed at how much both macs out perform the PC.
"Apple's PowerBook line, last revised in February with only incremental upgrades, will likely not see an upgrade before Macworld Expo San Francisco in January 2006, at the earliest."
And those will be Intel-based, I'll guess.
I agree with JT. Since the developers are under non-disclosure, they could easily have been told and seeded in plenty of time. The real reason for the announcement was to avoid bad will among Apple's customers and potential customers, who would otherwise have been buying the next iteration of the PPC based CPUs.
Sooo, it was Hobson's Choice. Jobs really wanted to make the switch, for whatever hormone-driven reason of his own, and this was the best way to do it. Losing sales in the here and now is better (and shorter in duration) than losing them from now on. Furthermore, there is the Longhorn buzz to pre-empt, and that was successful.
Consumers need a roadmap too. But purchasers of today's PowerPC-based Mac don't need to worry about their machines becoming orphans. PPC Macs will continue to be well-supported for years to come.
I disagree with both of you. Apple released the Developer version of OSX-Intel under just such a NDA... but it was only a month later that pirate copies were being spread on the Internet. Someone not only talked, someone broke copyright and the NDA! The Intel OSX version had been rumored for years.
Jobs and Apple only recognized that once they released the developers' kits to thousands of developers, the cat would be out of the bag, regardless of NDA, copyright, patents, etc. All it takes is one unethical developer.
Sorry...
"Disagree" should have been "Agree"
Cutting and pasting can sometimes leave remnents of another thought...
I need a little Mac hlep. Can someone on the Mac OS please Freepmail me?
Thanks!
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