In which direction is IBM future?

Within the last few days, several IBM-related announcements seems to prepare the way of some serious change in the IT world:
- first, last week with the Power.org consortium official launch, IBM is making its play to open up the Power Architecture. It came more or less at the same time than the report regarding excellent Cell processor performance for the future PS3.
- then this deal with Lenovo which will gain rights to manufacture IBM-branded computers, for 5 years, and IBM will hold an 18.9 per cent equity stake in Lenovo. (a quite complicated agreement with some unknown or not-clarified options for sure)
- then comes The Register The Register with an "opinion" article where Cormac O'Reilly is suspecting IBM to get closer to Apple, despite being able to acquire the Cupertino-based company.
All together, one can think that IBM is preparing some strategies and/or revenge regarding PC business. What will be its weapon? Well, we all know it: the PowerPC. IBM will probably do the maximum to compete with Intel and gain the CPU leadership. They have already helped AMD as much as possible without playing all their cards, and they have convinced Microsoft to install a PowerPC in the future Xbox2.
They are also promoting their PPC970-based server solutions as well as all servers using the recently launched Power5 processor running under Linux.
What is missing? A finalized and powerful OS running on PowerPC. Something that most of us know, OSX-like could be it. This is probably from that side of the story that the rumor related to a possible IBM-Apple closer relationship is coming from. Now regarding Apple side, short-term future seems bright; Apple is surfing on the iPod and iTMS waves which are generating much more "switch" than any dedicated ad campaign before. So Steve will not let Apple be acquired by IBM, especially it might be quite costly with Apple shares being over 60$; but one can really imagine that IBM could be more involved regarding Mac manufacturing/development.
Currently, IBM is already quite deeply involved for the development of all G5-based Apple's computers, even though Apple is taking care of the manufacturing parts. Facing difficulties to deliver computers according to the time schedule and announcements, Apple might see a solution to give IBM the responsibility to develop and manage manufacturing and production, while Apple will keep what it has made its strength for years: design (esthetic and hardware) and OS/software. In return, Apple might provide IBM servers with a dedicated server OS specifically for IBM needs and markets.
The future will tell us if we were right or not, but for sure current IBM position is interesting and might opened up our vision; Mac users might see their status evolved from "original" to "forerunner".