During WWDC, Steve Jobs put the blame of Apple's switching to Intel on IBM, as they were unable to improve G5s. Yet Ars Technica comes with another version of the affair, following IBM's point of view.
According to sources related to them, Apple did have their own responsibilities in this affair. They actually asked and obtained a very advantaged status from IBM, which they offer their bigger clients. This status would allow them to have specific CPUs developped, in counterpart of Apple's promise of buying huge quantities of CPUs.
But that's where things turned out sour. As Apple didn't want to get financial risks they first ordered small quantities, and then when the product's commercial carreer had started well, they wanted to get more of those immediately. Moreover, Apple would try negociating cheaper CPUs prices.
Those information are quite disturbing, as other sources told us the same as of late.
This new light shed on Apple and IBM getting separated seems to balance the resonsibilities. Maybe IBM would have been more interested in working on PPC 9x0 if they could have expected to get more money out of it.
Anyway, those who know Apple and their behaviour will find this whole store quite convincing.
Select all / none
Apple
CD Drives
G5
Hard Drive
Internet
iPad
iPhone
iPod
Laptop
MacBidouille
Mac Intel
Mac OS X
Network
Overclock
PC
Peripheral
Software
Sound
SSD
Video
