Decius wrote: I think this decision is a lot less important than most people are making it out to be. From a consumer perspective, nothing has changed.
I think this matters a lot more to Intel than it does to Apple. But Jobs is flashy and fashionable and Intel is just a chip company, so they let him do the talking. For now, anyway. The collective spin on this story is interesting; Apple steps out loud and proud with a "Death to the Power PC!" message, while Intel sits in the back of the room, silently taking in the reactions. According to standard practice in the semiconductor business, this was Intel's deal to announce to the world. In industry jargon, it's called a design win. Precedents abound: Transmeta, AMD, and many others. Here's an excerpt from a pre-Jobs-announcement interview that Macworld is running today. (The Computex exhibition in Taipei, where the interview was conducted, ended on June 4.) Chandrasekher: We always talk to Apple. Apple is a design win that weve coveted for 20 years and we continue to covet them as a design win. We will never give up on Apple. IDGNS: What would you be willing to do in order to win Apples business? Chandrasekher: Well, nothing unnatural that we wouldnt do for other design wins. Its got to make sense from a business standpoint. We would do what makes economic sense. If we can do that and still get the design win, wed do it.
Translating the Intel-Apple Deal | 
