Schiller: "We Are Committed To PowerPC"


Apple Senior VP of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, together with Senior VP of Software Engineering Avie Tevanian, and Director of Mac OS Product Marketing Ken Bereskin, talked PowerPC and Rendezvous in a lengthy interview with Infoworld on Friday.

Schiller was asked about Apple's commitment to Motorola. Perhaps revealingly, Schiller said that Apple was committed to PowerPC, but did not mention Motorola. Apple is also reported to be considering an IBM Power4-derived chip, but currently relies on Motorola for supplies of its G4 processor.

In this context, Schiller raised the issue of OS X's 'portability' across platforms, arguing that "we can do whatever we want to do", but that "the plan remains PowerPC today."

In the interview, Schiller and Tevanian canvas a range a topics, with a lot of emphasis placed on Rendezvous. They also spoke of the importance of open standards, such as 802.11b (Airport).

However, while the three said Apple was immersed in BlueTooth, which they saw as a type of "wireless USB" technology, they refused to be drawn on when Apple would incorporate BlueTooth as a standard part of the Macintosh package.

The three Apple executives dismissed the 'home server' notion, arguing that clients could be servers if and when necessary. Moreover, Schiller said that today's Macs were powerful enough to perform both the client/server role - exemplified by the technology in Rendezvous.

Another interesting issue related to digital piracy. Schiller sees Microsoft's attempts to build encrption schemes, for example in Windows Media, was "foolish," as professionals would break encryption. Schiller sees Apple's consumer role as helping "honest people stay honest", although he would not be drawn on future Apple technologies in this area, preferring instead to cite the iPod's anti-piracy protection.