Well, Apple has finally trotted out its new Intel-based models, a couple of laptops and iMacs with the Intel Core Duo chips. Last year, when Apple announced its move to Intel, a lot of people said that would be a major blow to Linux on the desktop — because Apple could sell Intel machines cheaper, with the ever-popular Mac OS X. That combination was supposed to make *nix geeks snap up the Apple machines in droves, as well as the poor huddled masses of Windows users who would suddenly be willing to think different and switch when the machines cost a little (lot) less.
As I said last year, this doesn’t look like the revolutionary change that some pundits were predicting. If Apple has any hopes of displacing Windows on a significant number of desktops, it will need to do better than a $2K laptop or $1299 iMac. Apple is still catering to the high-end market that bolsters its profit margins, but doesn’t do much for its market share overall.
