Some overlooked details in the Apple/Intel announcement

Tags: Apple, Intel, Marketing

I just spent an hour watching the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference keynote. I found I discovered a couple of points that I think have been overlooked in most of the stories on the matter:

1. Apple has been running OS X on Intel for five years. This has been reported a bit, but it just shows how good Apple is at keeping a secret. Know any other companies with development projects they've kept secret for five years?


2. Apple is actually shipping Intel developer systems this month.. I had thought that they were only shipping the XCode development package this month. But in fact, Apple is selling an only-for-developers Intel-based computer to developers for $999. This shows that the things that Jobs showed weren't just demos. It means they are shipping all the technologies shown in the keynote in developer products. Quite remarkable.


3. Paul Otellini did a great job representing Intel. Yes, Paul is a marketing guy, but he was on stage with probably the best marketer in Silicon Valley, and yet he not only held his own, he was disarmingly charming in front of what was probably not the easiest crowd. I suspect we will see more smart alliances and innovations from Intel under his leadership

Overall, Jobs told the story well and made it seem logical. He still has a big job to do in convincing the rest of the world that this is going to do good things for the company, but you have to give the guy credit: he isn't thinking just quarter-to-quarter. This is a CEO who projects where things will be several years out and still will fund contingency projects to make sure he can deliver. If only more tech CEOs had this type of long-term thinking.