It appears that it is official, Apple is going to use Intel processors instead of PowerPC starting next year. The goal is to complete the transition in two years, by this time in 2007. Yes, Steve did indeed switch. Engadget has some notes from the WWDC keynote, where Steve made the official announcement. On a side note, the next version of Mac OS X (10.5) will be called Leopard and is scheduled to be released around the end of 2006, or early 2007.
So here is what we know right now. You’ll be able to run PowerPC binaries on the new Apple/Intel systems. It is supposed to be reasonably fast, but we’ll have to wait and see on that. A developer kit is available today for $1000, which includes OS 10.4.1 and a P4 3.6 system (on lease). Apple has been running OS X on Intel systems for years, just in case I suppose.
There are still plenty that we don’t know yet. Will you be able to buy Apple/Intel systems and run Windows on them? I’m thinking yes, but I won’t rule out Apple discouraging it. Even if they try to prevent it, someone will find a way around it. It seems almost a sin though to image Windows systems running in the Apple stores. The flip side of this question is will you be able to run OS X on plain x86 boxes (like a off the shelf Dell system)? This seems less likely to me. One of the things OS X has had going for it is that it hasn’t had to worry about drivers for everything under the sun the way Microsoft has. I’d score this possibility as unlikely, but again, some enterprising young soul will likely find a way around this too. Will sales fall off while people wait for the new Intel based systems? How will the stock market react? Will the performance on the Intel systems be better than what you can get out of G5?
If this is how things are going, I still think this suddenly puts wine in a very interesting position. How long until the same binary runs on both Windows and OS X?