Cringely Didn’t Factor Notebooks in His ‘Intel and Apple Merger’ Equation
Cringely seems to think that Intel and Apple will soon merge and he lays out a reasonable argument, but he lacks a very important word in his entire essay: notebooks.
Yes, IBM makes a great processor with the G5, but it’s a processor that’s too hot for notebooks at this point. Cringely also believes that AMD would have been a better partner than Intel, and if we’re just looking at desktop chips that’s absolutely true. AMD takes the x86 64 bit crown, but when it comes to power-smart performance in a portable chip, Intel takes the crown.
Notebooks Continue to Grow
I’m not saying that Cringely’s guess is a wrong one. In fact, it tickles the brain in a pretty intriguing way. But, with notebooks outselling desktops these days, Apple had to do something about the fact that Powerbooks were getting weaker and weaker when compared to the competition and eventually no amount of shiny aluminum would have been able to cover that up. A pairing with Intel brings Apple excellent desktop chips and the best portable ones for many years to come.
It’s Really About Selling Me The Spongebob Movie
That said, I don’t think is just about notebooks. The real prize is the future growth market of digital video distribution and the devices we’ll use to consume that video. Watching Intel and Apple (with the iPod and not yet announced hardware) vs. Microsoft and IBM (with the xbox 360) vs. Sony and IBM (with the PS3, running linux of all things) is going to be a lot of fun in the coming years. This industry makes for some strange bedfellows.
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. . .you don’t think it all has to do, in the end, with Cringley’s fabulous question, *Why* was Mr. Sony standing onstage with The Steve?
It’s tough to figure out why Sony does many of the things it does. It’s impossible to talk about Sony as a single company, since it’s a bunch of huge self-serving divisions that are constantly fighting with each other. Case in point: Sony’s music division just ‘protected’ their CD business by handing abilities over to Microsoft, despite the fact that Microsoft is trying to displace them in the videogame business among other places. Sony still lacks a good iPod competitor not because it doesn’t have the finesse to do so, but because it’s entertainment division constantly bars them from entering this area without ridiculous DRM barriers.
Sony’s relationship with Apple is anyone’s guess. Apple will be carrying Sony’s HD camera’s in their store but continue to hand Sony their ass in online music and digital player sales. Obviously, the next area is the sale of video, both television and movies, over the Internet. Whether Apple and Sony end up working together is a huge mystery, but I guess that’s what it makes it so much fun to watch.