MacUser.co.uk posts a story about Apple's secret Marklar (OS X on x86) project. According to their sources, they are also claiming that Apple is considering marketing Marklar -- as an independant product:
US sources close to the project indicated that the company was actively considering selling Marklar as a retail product, effectively allowing users to replace Windows with OS X. Apple is contemplating the move because it sees an opportunity to win market share from Windows when Microsoft introduces Palladium, a version of its operating system that implements digital rights management.
...or, alternatively, to be triggered for release if Microsoft and Apple relations sour.
Information on Marklar was first leaked by this eWeek article which describes it as an "fall-back plan" should the PowerPC fail to deliver.
Later unconfirmable information came in the form of this detailed article on Apple's Past and Future roadmap... which shares many similarities to this Macuser's report:
Contrary to circulating rumors, [Marklar] is not meant to be a Power PC exit strategy. Rather, it is intended to be offered to X86 users when Apple sees market conditions being fit for it. What it means by this is regarding Intel's Lagrande technology, and Microsoft's Palladium technology. Apple intends on releasing OS X on Intel, when consumer dissatisfaction falls to an all time low for Microsoft when users become restricted to what they can do on their PC's due to Lagrande and Palladium. Likely it will be released in the event that Microsoft chooses to stop developing for the Mac platform altogether.
If this information is indeed accurate, this also provides more validation to the RoadMap article which also detailed other products that are in the works.
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