Ever since IBM I announced its fast, relatively cheap ,750cx and 750cxe G3 chips earlier this year, I have been advocating that Apple swallow its G4 pride and go for clock speed in its consumer machines, which it to some extent did with the Paris iBooks.

Personally, I am hoping that we will see some 700 MHz or 733 MHz iMacs and iBooks rolled out at MacWorld Expo San Francisco in two weeks if Apple can convince itself that having consumer machines with higher clock speed numbers than the professional Power Macs is acceptable from a PR and marketing standpoint.

Macinstein argues otherwise in his latest editorial. For one thing, he doesn't think Apple´s pretentiousness would allow them to do such a thing, and for another he hopes the G3 line just goes away, that there will be G4 speed bump, and that the low end of the Macintosh lineup could consist of the current G4 speeds with the G3 line scrapped.

Obviously, I disagree. Perhaps Apple will surprise us with a significant G4 speed increase in January, but I am highly skeptical that this will be possible. 600 MHz is the max that is at all likely, and that won't be enough in the consumer market.

The consumer public doesn't care whether the chip in their computer is called a G3 or G4. MHz numbers carry a lot more weight than chip family designations among the tech-illiterate. Until the G4 MHz constipation is overcome, let's go with faster G3 chips.

You can read Macinstein's argument to the contrary here:
http://www.macinstein.com/pressrelease.cfm?ID=703

Charles W. Moore

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