Death of an era???

[itix]

If Apple did change their Macs over to Intel x86 CPU, I see three possibilities: Apple goes under as they have just betraied their userbase, PPC development slows as IBM looses a major customer, or both.

Fourth option: Apple skyrockets in the x86 market. Maybe they lose few Apple fanatics but they can get more from x86.

[itix]

Hmm.. though:

Apple has used IBM's PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel's chips, sources familiar with the situation said.

It says nothing about x86. The x86 stuff mentioned later in the article is speculation.

One advantage Apple has this time: The open-source FreeBSD operating system, of which Mac OS X is a variant, already runs on x86 chips such as Intel's Pentium. And Jobs has said Mac OS X could easily run on x86 chips.

X86 was not part of original rumour. The editor only assumes it is x86.