Apple stayed with IBM’s PowerPC chip for so long that the idea that it might change horses never occurred to me – although Apple has been flirting with Intel for quite a while, according to Steve Jobs.

Nevertheless the G5 gave Apple strong differentiation. Apple was always faster than the PC opposition. There is no indication, by the way, that the performance lead IBM has with the PowerPC chip is soon to be eroded. Indeed IBM has established a volume market for its chips in the games market primarily because of performance.

In all probability, IBM’s success in the games market had a lot to do with Apple’s switch because the chip volumes in the games market are so much greater. It is likely that IBM was giving Apple a sweet deal in terms of R&D time and price, which it was no longer willing to do – so it became a matter of simple economics. I doubt if there will be too many tears shed at IBM, but it cannot be good news for the genesis of a PowerPC-based Linux PC.

The switch to Intel will have some consequences. Apple will no longer be able to boast of a significant performance lead over Windows PCs and, if it wants to, Apple will be able to sell its popular applications on Windows. That would, however, reduce Apple’s natural differentiation.

Apple guards its differentiation jealously and rightly so. Also it is primarily a hardware company, not a software company. So what I think is going on is that Apple has Dell’s share of the home market in its cross hairs. It cannot touch Dell in the enterprise where it dominates the field with its combination of efficient manufacturing and competitive pricing – but Apple’s enterprise market is almost negligible anyway. The home market is different. There the Apple stores are a distinct advantage over Dell.

There is little doubt in my mind that Apple is intending to sell higher volumes of PCs and laptops at lower prices and the move to Intel (which also puts it in a position to deal with AMD) will help with costs and volume production. Don’t expect to buy Apple Macs at Dell prices – I doubt if it’s economically achievable, but from Steve Jobs’ perspective it’s not desirable either. You should expect to pay a premium for the Apple Mac, but you can expect the premium to diminish.

There is a neat little bit of irony in all this. Just as Apple is moving away from the PowerPC chip, Microsoft is moving to it.