How can I not write about this? You may have heard: Apple will be transitioning all their computers to Intel chips starting one year from today. I just followed along with the keynote where Steve Jobs announced this (and not much else, but who's quibbling).

So. Denny pointed out that this means it'll be a few years before he buys a new Mac. I think that may be true... but if this results in faster laptops, I may not be able to make myself wait. And Xserves... can you imagine an Xserve with real computing power behind it? Or what a Mac mini could turn out at its current pricepoint?

My thoughts on the keynote as reported by a few folks who were actually there:

1. Mac OS X has been running on Intel for five years? I think there are some Apple engineers today who will see their first daylight in a long time. For no verifiable rumor to have surfaced about this before last week... they must have lived under guard.

2. The surfacing of the rumor last week must have been an intentional leak. If the level of secrecy that was evinced had been kept until this morning, when he talked about it in front of a huge crowd at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, there would have been pitchforks and flaming torches, you can be sure.

3. Paul Otellini, Intel President & CEO, took the stage and said "he'd never give up on Apple, like IBM has." Ouch. Consider that bridge burned.

4. That said, IBM apparently promised faster chips (Steve's famous assertion of 3.0GHz chips by... last year) and cooler chips (because really, Powerbooks are still running G4s) and have not been able to deliver.

5. Will my new Powerbook come with an "Intel Inside" label? I fervently hope not.

More thoughts added an hour later:

1. Glad we bought our iBook last fall, and not, say last week. Now I feel neither cheated, nor that the wait for a new one will be too long. Woe to those who were waiting until this conference to buy a new machine. Shelf life of a new Mac is now 365 days and counting.

2. Apple may have thought that this was the best time to do it, given record iPod sales to keep the company afloat while no Macs are sold. I mean really, who is going to buy a PowerPC-fueled Mac now? Anyone? Maybe Steve Jobs will buy a few million and donate them to schools/Africa ala Bill Gates.

3. Does this mean Apple will have nothing to show at next January's Macworld show? Hm. Methinks I sense some consumer products in the pipeline that aren't computers.