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Apple's Move to Intel May Signal Faster, Cheaper Mac Laptops
Apple Computer Inc.'s plan to switch its computers to Intel Corp. chips for the first time may help Chief Executive Steve Jobs sell cheaper laptops and extend gains in market share.
Jobs will unveil plans to use Intel processors today during a speech at an Apple conference for developers in San Francisco, according to reports on Cnet Networks Inc.'s News.com, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
"The main motivation is more and better processor choices,'' said Jean-Louis Gassee, who oversaw Apple's products and research-and-development efforts from 1981 to 1990. He's now a venture capitalist at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, California.
The shift would help Jobs court laptop buyers, a market that's growing more than three times faster than desktop personal computers. Intel chips cost less, run faster and generate less heat than the products built by Motorola Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. that Cupertino, California-based Apple has relied on for 21 years.
Using Intel chips may enable Apple to make "smaller, lighter laptops'' and "more macho higher-performance laptops'' than possible with IBM and Motorola's chip business, spun off as Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Gassee said. That's because the processors create less heat and require less cooling, making it easier to build the slimmer styles consumers prefer.
The faster speeds may help build on Apple's recent gains in market share. Shipments of Apple's Macintosh PCs surged 45 percent in the U.S. in the first quarter, spurring the biggest market share gain in five years, as the success of its iPod music players drove new Mac purchases, according to researcher Gartner Inc.
Intel chips will debut in Apple's cheaper, less-powerful PCs starting in 2006, then in more-expensive models in 2007, News.com said June 3, without identifying the source.
Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment on the reports, as did Intel's Tom Beermann and Freescale's Glaston Ford. IBM officials didn't return calls seeking comment.
More Prudent
"Apple is now at a position where they're going to have to wow people,'' said David Nolan, who manages the $129 million BB&T Mid Cap Growth Fund in Charleston, West Virginia. The fund owns Apple shares. ``Investors are being more prudent.''
Shares of Apple fell $1.80, or 4.5 percent, to $38.24 June 3 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The shares have surged 19 percent this year after tripling in 2004. Sixteen analysts suggest buying shares, seven recommend holding them and none says investors should sell. In the past two months, 18 analysts raised profit estimates for this quarter.
Apple resisted moving to Intel in the past and turned to Motorola and IBM for chips to help combat sales lost to "Wintel'' systems, Intel-based PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.
That reliance sometimes cost Apple sales. The PC maker said in July 2004 it had to delay some iMac and Power Mac systems for businesses because IBM had problems making the processors.
Recent Success
Intel, the world's biggest computer-chipmaker, introduced a chip package for notebook computers in March 2003 called Centrino. By combining a special chipset, microprocessor and radio, Intel offered consumers longer battery life, increased performance and wireless high-speed Internet connectivity.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel's top Pentium chip runs at 3.7 gigahertz. The fastest Mac G5 needs two IBM PowerPC processors to reach 2.7 gigahertz. Intel has 86 percent of the laptop-chip market.
Apple, ranked fifth in U.S. PC sales, boosted its market share to 3.7 percent from 2.6 percent and trails No. 1 Dell Inc. by 28 percentage points. Every point Jobs picks up in PC market share means about $2 billion in revenue, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Bill Shope in New York said.
Buzz
Jobs, 50, is courting customers turned off by Apple's higher prices and attracted to less-costly Wintel systems.
In January, Jobs introduced the Mac mini, the lowest-priced Mac ever. The system costs as little as $499 without a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell sells Intel- based desktops starting at $299, according to the company's Web site.
Using Intel may eventually allow Apple to cut prices 10 percent to 20 percent, UBS AG analyst Ben Reitzes said.
Mac's success is key. The company in April had extra iPod inventory for the first time, said Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster in Minneapolis. Shipments of the player, Apple's fastest-growing product, may be little changed or decline this month, Mac News Network's AppleInsider.com said last week.
"They are creating new products, they're maintaining and gaining market share,'' Munster said. "Their challenge is how to keep the buzz going.''
Courting Developers
The Mac mini, coupled with a redesigned version of the iMac that Apple released in September, is lifting sales. Mac shipments soared to a four-year high of 1.07 million units last quarter. Revenue from PCs rose 29 percent to $1.49 billion.
Jobs has done a shift to Intel before. As founder of NeXT Computer Inc., he moved the operating system for that machine to Intel's chips in 1993. Apple's current Mac OS X operating system is based in part on NeXT, making it possible for OS X to be switched to Intel chips.
Jobs will seek to convince developers the move makes sense as he urges them to write programs for Macs. About 3,500 developers attended the five-day conference last year, up 17 percent from 2003. Apple says 12,000 programs work with its current operating system, compared with more than 100,000 for Windows.
Not everyone will greet the move to Intel with enthusiasm, said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu in San Francisco. Since Apple marketed its Mac operating system and PowerPC chips as superior to Wintel, Apple may alienate some customers, Wu said in a May 24 note to investors.
"Many of Apple's diehard loyalists view Macs and themselves as the Jedi knights versus the evil empire -- Microsoft and Intel,'' Wu wrote.
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发表于 2005-6-4 10:28
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