Motorola Inc’s Computer Group launches its first PowerPC-based machines on October 4 – and the line-up includes desktop boxes as well as the servers that have been widely flagged. Motorola has not hitherto offered desktop computers. The company is expected to major on Windows NT and Unix as the operating systems for the new line, but could well spring a surprise with something more appropriate for the desktop. Meantime the New York Times yesterday went big with the story that IBM Corp and Apple Computer Inc have failed to agree a common specification for the PowerPC Reference Platform, asserting that this had derailed the strategy to create a single alternative to Microsoft Corp software on Intel Corp hardware – something that has in fact been dead in the water for at least six months. The paper points out that all the three people that signed the PowerPC agreement – Jack Kuehler at IBM, John Sculley at Apple and George Fisher at Motorola – have since departed. The thing that is really holding back the PowerPC effort is Apple’s prevarication over licensing Macintosh System 7.5 – and the Cupertino company says that it now intends to clarify the position on Monday.
