Apple throws the switch, aligns with Intel | CNET News.com

Apple throws the switch, aligns with Intel | CNET News.com: "In his speech, Jobs revealed that Apple has been developing all versions of OS X since its inception to run on Intel and PowerPC chips.
'Mac OS X has been leading a secret double life the past five years,' he said.
...
Going forward, Mac developers will be able to create universal binaries of their programs that will run on both types of chips.
In the meantime, Apple has a transcoding tool called Rosetta that will allow programs written for PowerPC chips to run on Intel-based machines. "Every application is not going to be universal from Day 1," Jobs told the audience.
...
After Jobs' presentation, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. "That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will," he said. "We won't do anything to preclude that."
However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac," he said."

Some observations, after skimming the initial press and viewing a CNBC interview at wsj.com during which Steve Jobs (with his caption alternating between "CEO Apple" and "CEO Pixar" depending on the discussion context) basically said "We don't talk about unannounced products" and "We don't talk about numbers in between quarterly earnings announcements" about 10 times:
1. If it were any other company, the press reaction would have been stark. I haven't seen much press, for example, on all of the marketing claims Apple made during recent years that now seem pretty silly in hindsight.
2. I'm surprised I haven't already seen speculation about the Osborne effect -- i.e., the tendency for customers, when implicitly or explicitly told "just wait until you see our next release!", to do just that -- with devastating sales ramifications in the interim period.
3. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac" -- I suspect Apple competitors were very glad to see that...
4. I guess Apple will have to "think different" for processor suppliers, if it ever gets serious about gaming/entertainment devices; I imagine IBM won't be in a rush to bid for its business...
5. Apple doesn't even have a press release about the architecture switch on their Web site -- although I was able to learn, from the Apple Hot News page, that Gwen Stefani currently has the top iTunes song...