Apple beats the big boys to processor punch
IT'S NO COINCIDENCE THAT APPLE is the first box builder to announce a product containing Intel's Nahelem-cored Xeon X5580 CPU.
In fact, this is the third time since Cupertino jumped into bed with Chipzilla that Apple has come up with the goods way ahead of the likes of Dell and HP.
Two years ago when Apple and Intel first held hands, 3Ghz Clovertown chips started appearing in Apple's flagship desktops, despite reports that the processor was not commercially available.
Then in April last year Apple announced a refresh to its Imac line including a mystery processor which turned out to be a 45nm X9100 Penryn. Again, way ahead of the competition.
So how does Apple get such preferrential treatment from Intel? Why is the world's largest maker of CPU's happy to roll out its nearest and dearest to a niche manufacturer which uses a proprietory operating system and its own hardware architecture?
We'll probably never know but there are four possible reasons:
Apple is comfortably well-off and can easily afford to pay premiums for parts which built-to-a-price box shifters like Dell never will. It has higher margins, so can afford to pay a little more for its components. And Apple customers are willing to pay a little (or a lot) more for early adoption and exclusivity.
Apple is small (relatively speaking) so Intel can allocate the entirety of its initial fabrication run to one manufacturer, keeping tight reigns on quality control and returns. Macolytes are also fiercely loyal to their weapon of choice. Which means they will feed back to the mothership with bug reports and problems with hardware, rather than shouting the odds to no-one on some backwater Internet forum. Intel would be hard pressed to find better customer feedback from a bunch of PC World customers.
Apple is powerful enough to not give a damn about Intel's release dates and just went ahead and released the products without the chipmakers blessing. Although possible, this is highly unlikely.
The last, and most plausible, is that Apple just asked nicely... and Intel said yes.
Which one of these – or the myriad other possibilities – is closest to the truth we will probably never know.
What we do know is that, if you want a Nehalem, and you want it now, you'd better get your credit card out and head to your local Apple Store. µ
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Why have Apple got Nehalem out the door before everyone else ? It's precisely because it's a niche OS and architecture. No need to test and prove multiple version of Windows, Linux and applications. That and the marketing kudos for Intel with a sexy brand.
Ummmmeeeer, they broke the NDA.
When Intel buys Apple, they would be smart to keep the Apple brand. All the better to fool the wretchedly ignorant fanbois.
Then Intel could boost their margins by eliminating their in-house quality department and just use the Apple fanbois as the testers.
In the PC market Apple is marginally above My Mum's home baked hardware. It has no pulling power at all. In the current market climate Intel is happy to shift a chip to anyone who asks. It does not make Apple a technology leader. If HP had a product it wanted to come out on time Intel would let them and we are talking a few weeks not months. Why does Apple get all the publicity. It is such a minority of almost every market yet every magazine reports it as if it were HP. A mate told me that all the press were on Apples so we only get reports from Fanboys who don't have the brains to turn on a proper computer
I find the second hypothesis more plausible. Intel gives it's first born of any new generation to a niche market player. If it all goes tits up, whos been hurt? A couple of fanbois? Who cares! Given that scenario, Intel has time to fix the problem(s) before they roll it out to the people who actually USE their computers, as opposed to just letting them sit on a desk looking all shiney and bright. Apple fanbois are used to playing the dual roles of guinea pigs and ATM machines for Jobs & Co.
If your honest you have to admit those are some clean looking insides on that aluminum case unlike my rig with wires everywhere. Apples are the Ferrari of computers, then there is OS X that just just plain outright rocks, so yup, if I ran Apple I would charge premium too.
You guys are all so so so wrong. The only reason Intel gives this lovey dovey treatment to Apple is that they dont want the unhappy bride running away to another suitor.
AMD has intentionally been kept out of the Apple deal and there is no way Intel wants to open the door even a little bit as even if there is ONE AMD cpu then the necessary changes to the OS then EVERY Apple machine COULD possibly run on their OS. Intel would dread that happening.
I am shocked that all you learned guys are not able to fathom out this one !!!!
Helping Apple is no problem. But if you give Dell exclusive parts ahead of time, HP will not like you anymore. Acer will not like you anymore. Asus will not like you anymore. Lenovo will not like you anymore. (etc.etc.etc.)
But if you give the new and scarce initial heaps of Xeons to Apple, who cares? They're in their own and on their own. No bad feelings! It's all love and joy! Yippity doo-dah!!
Apple hardware has always cost a small fortune. At least compared to a similar specced PC. Fanboys know this, Apple knows this, the hobo in a cardboard box in the alley knows this.
Nehalem setups with their DDR3 and new socket aren't cheap. With the current market people are looking for value and things that will fit the bill. Not nearly as many people are going for the top of the line, and many will discard Nehalem simply because of the price.
Apple fans don't care. They've always paid huge premiums for a piece of fruit on the side of their computer. Apple will manufacture these, slap a Nehalem inside of it and pass off any additional costs onto the consumer in addition to a ridiculous markup to boot.
Put expensive hardware in a box that is going to be expensive regardless of what's in it.
You can't even order the previous gen of Mac pro and "save" money. The iMac are maybe a little cheaper, but it cost 1200$ to upgrade from 2 to 8 Gb of Ram and 250$ to upgrade from a Geforce 9500 , sorry a gt 120, to a radeon 4850. The upgarde cost more than the card it self and I even foud 2 cards for a crossfire of 4850, for a little 50$ more.
Apple should be ashamed
@Regulas
I've heard people relate to Ferrari's as Italian trash. Not to say that they are, just that everyone has an opinion. If you want my 2 cents, Apple is the king of spin and marketing, they have gotten pretty good at brainwashing people into thinking Apple makes a superior product. Apparently gay looking dancers does it for a small portion of the population?
OS-X just plain outright rocks? Are you kidding me? Your probably one of the people that claim "It's so much faster" - "It's so much more stable" - but don't understand the implications of that.
My Apple can be put in front of a door, to hold it open SO FAST! In fact, it can be done before a stupid PC computer can even boot up!!!!
OS-X is primitive. Windows is so much more evolved its not even a comparison. If you want to be naive and compare stability and load times, why don't you do something equally as foolish and compare MSDOS to OS-X
DOS loads so much faster! I'm a fanboy and I can spin! Uggh, I want to throw up now.
or in a deal with apple only using intel cpu gets a little head start?
Your comments have reminded me why I don't frequent geeks sites.
The last, and most plausible, is that Apple just asked nicely... and Intel said yes.
Which one of these – or the myriad other possibilities – is closest to the truth we will probably never know.