Mac Mondays: Why should you wait for Intel Macs?
Rumors are flying that Intel Macs may show their faces as early as January’s Macworld conference and others remain set on a mid 2006 timeframe but either way the time is not far away so should we wait or not? I have people ask me the question daily and I usually answer with a question saying, “Should you?� Of course this pisses people off but let’s not fool ourselves that Apple’s holiday lineup is better than ever. Each Mac model has been refreshed in the last three months (the iBook being the oldest) and the hardware and software offerings from Apple are amazing and honestly the time frame for purchasing depends on your purchasing habits. Let me explain.
Do you purchase a new computer every two years and has it been two years since your last trip to the retail store credit card in hand? Then I say, get a new iMac or PowerBook because this time two years from now you are going to start feeling the pressure of owning a PowerPC and many shareware titles will stop supporting your system and switching to Intel will be done on Apple’s roadmap and there will be plenty of selection. I am wary against buying a machine the day Apple announces its Intel offerings because there are so many apps I use daily that do not work with Intel. If you are a home user with iLife, MsWord and Safari then you’ll be safe. Apple will have to partner with Microsoft the day they announce the next gen computers because Office for Intel will be a key player in the successful switch.
If you purchase a computer every five years and you just hit the five year mark, I suggest holding out. I make this suggestion because in five years you will be hard pressed to find the latest Firefox build compiled for PowerPC and by then all of the apps you use will be Intel only even Apple’s operating system. You will be stuck at version 10.5 or 10.6 forever or at least until you update your system. If you don’t need a new Mac right now then wait until mid July when many software titles are available for your Intel and by then the first machines released will be going through their first refresh. For example, a 2.4 GHz iMac with Intel is released in January will see a 3.0 GHz update in July and many of the kinks (not that there will be any) will be resolved.
What about graphic artists that get a new machine each year? Get one now because Adobe won’t have versions of their CS package for Intel until CS version 3 and I estimate that will ship in Q4 of 2006 based on their previous release history. What do you do until then? You may have a Dual core Power Mac Intel machine but can’t do any work so get a computer now and at the beginning of 2007 when Apple releases the Intel PowerMac (estimate) it will be safe to go ahead since most print drivers and applications will work with the new hardware.
There’s a reason why rumor sites are reporting iMacs and Powerbooks to be the first machines updated. iMacs because most users of this machine are home users and don’t require some of the commercial applications yet to be compiled to Intel when the machine is released. PowerBooks I can’t understand and would prefer iBooks but Apple has its reasons. You can just do what I do and purchase a machine every three years and with Applecare so if electrical damage occurs in the motherboard you can get a new one just before the Applecare ends. Of course, never do that I’m just saying. Now you can be the smartest gent at your MUG meeting this month having all of the answers about the Intel switch cause the question will come up.
