Apple has rescheduled its Worldwide Developer Conference from May in San José to June in San Francisco (yeah!), officially to be on time to show Panther, the next version of Mac OS X (1.3).
The Register speculates different, suggesting that the real beef might be more about the announcement that Apple will adopts IBM'sPowerPC 970 processor.
There has been many speculations about a processor switch since it has been obvious that Motorola has given up on the megahertz war and that Apple is subsequently incapable of keeping up with the Intel world. Some have even expected a switch to Intel, after Steve Jobs said something about having "options" in the processor arena.
IBM's PowerPC remains the most obvious move for Apple, and would give the manufacturer a smoother upgrade path than a radical switch to the long-standing enemy. Apple's ISVs have just finished (or have they?) to swallow the upgrade path to Mac OS X, it is definitely not the time for Apple to impose a complete processor change, moreover in an economical downturn without a customer in sight.
The move to the PPC 970 would not only give some fresh air to Apple in terms of processor speed, but also allows it to move to 64 bits computing. And faster than the Wintel world, if you follow this Slashdot story.
I hope I'll be able to make it to the WWDC this year!
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