Apple started shipping Power Mac G5s on Monday and Aberdeen Group chief research officer Peter Kastner said, “The performance improvements are so evident that only a few minutes in the store demo area will convince many buyers that it’s time to upgrade.”
Kastner was quoted in a TechNewsWorld article and also said, “For a new chip, this is about as good as it gets.” Analysts told TechNewsWorld that the PowerPC G5 processor will give Mac users dramatically improved performance in the high-end, gaming and graphics markets.
“The G5 is a hot box and one which for the first time in several years gives Mac owners some bragging rights versus their industry-standard brethren,” Kastner said. IDC research director Alan Promisel told TechNewsWorld that, while the G5 is aimed at high-end users, gamers and audio-visual producers, the 64-bit desktop computer is being watched by others. “It’s definitely an architecture the commercial IT managers are keeping an eye on,” he said.
Promisel also told TechNewsWorld that the success of the G5 won’t be truly evident until after the back-to-school and holiday seasons. Still, he added that customers in search of “simulation as close to reality as possible” will be willing to pay the cost for a G5.