Think ordinary.

As if you haven’t heard by now, Cnet reports that Apple will announce a switch to Intel-based chips Monday. Rumors have been floating around for years, but a switch to x86 has yet to happen. Our April Fools prank stated that Apple would discontinue Mac OS X development and produce x86 hardware. It was a joke, but we may have gotten half of it right on accident! Also, some may remember the story we ran about Paul Thurrott stating that Apple was going x86 (I think we were the first Mac site to write about this). Of course, Paul Thurrott isn’t exactly the most reliable rumor source out there. Remember the iPod WMA support rumor he started?

Of note is that there are no WWDC sessions that are listed as “to be determined. This indicates that there will be no sessions on porting applications to another hardware platform, thereby discredit this report to an extent.

A switch to x86 could be pure distilled stupidity, for several reasons:

-It would alienate many Mac users and developers. Many Mac users like the fact that the Mac is unique in that it does not use an x86 chip. Developers would have to re-write their apps, or at the least recompile them, unless some technological miracle of emulation allows apps written for PowerPC to run on an x86 Mac without major difficulty. Also, developers just finished a major transition to Mac OS X. I doubt many would want to go onto another transition.

-It would kill Mac sales from now until x86 Macs hit the market. Who would want to buy a Mac that would end up orphaned in another year?

-It makes little sense. Sure, as of now, Intel chips would seem to have the GHz advantage. But there is a lot of innovation--like dual-core Freescale G4 chips and multi-core G5, as well as the Cell processors--in the PowerPC world. The fact that every next-generation gaming console will use the PowerPC architecture is telling.

Of course, we could be all wrong and our fears could very well be unfounded. Intel could be working on a PowerPC chip for Apple (which, given IBM’s lackluster job with the G5, may be quite possible). Apple and Intel could be working on some other technology. Maybe Apple’s bluffing. Or the media could all be on a prolonged acid trip and making all this Apple-to-Intel stuff up. Or maybe there’s something really awesome in the pipeline that’ll blow us away. This is Apple; you never quite know what they’ll do next. I don’t think Steve Jobs is dumb enough to do something that could nuke sales for the next year at the least. Or at least I hope he isn’t.

Personally, I don’t expect anything to happen. I don’t expect any chip switch or anything from Intel, except for maybe Apple joining forces with Intel for WiMAX. That’s about all I realistically expect at this point. An Intel-produced PowerPC would be intriguing, but I don’t know if Intel would be willing to sink money into researching and developing a product that such a small chunk of the world would use, unless other companies have expressed interest in such a chip. Another technological partnership is quite possible. After all, it would justify why Apple and Intel would have been talking, and in a high-tech game of telephone, a scoop about Apple and Intel teaming up to develop a technology could very well turn into “Apple’s going Intel!”. But I could be wrong; and if I am I’ll gladly eat crow. Mmm.

We’ll know for certain in about 36 hours. Buckle up, Mac universe, and hang on for dear life. This may be a bumpy ride.