Apple switching to Intel

According to cnet:

CEO Steve Jobs officially announced on Monday that Apple would gradually shift its Mac line to Intel-based chips over the next two years. The move confirms a timetable first reported by CNET News.com.

My take on Apple for a long time now has been that they fundamentally view themselves as a hardware company. They’re very good at software (since the NeXT acquisition), but the software is really used to drive hardware sales. The shift to Intel processors is probably just a tactical one: they get more bang for the buck and better chips for laptops (which are a huge seller).

If Apple were to start making OS X available as a direct competitor to Windows, now that would be a strategic shift. I don’t think that’s gonna happen.

Update: I just saw the page for the transition kit for developers. This $999 kit *includes a computer*, which would certainly support the notion that Apple has no intention of letting people run Mac OS X on a stock PC.