Developers speak out on the big switch (part II)

In a follow-up of our first article which cites developer's opinion on Apple's switch to Intel, here are some additionnal comments we received from developers.

Corel, Jessica Gould, Media Relations :
"We certainly do plan to support this new Mac platform and are incorporating these updates into our development plans. But it is important to note that these are still very early days, so we aren't yet providing specific details publicly.

We think that this is a positive development for Corel because Apple's adoption of the Intel chip will likely lead to greater efficiencies when developing software applications for both Mac and Windows.

We aren't yet announcing any specific dates for new updates, but we want to assure you that Corel will continue to support the Mac platform with award-winning products like Corel Painter (which enjoys half of its customer base on the Mac)."

Runtime Revolution Ltd, Dr Rod McCall :
"We welcome the decision by Apple to migrate to Intel processors. We feel this added power will entice a whole set of new users. Also we have been supporting the x86 architecture on Windows and Linux for a number of years so do not envisage any problems porting Revolution to Mac/Intel."

Intego, Laurent Marteau, CEO
"We consider this to be a very positive change and are very excited about the many possibilities that it may lead to. We feel that a clear road-map for future processors is essential to Apple's future. Intego has always supported Apple's changes, and will continue for future changes as well. We will port all our existing applications to the Intel-based Mac OS X, and have already begun working on this, and we will naturally focus on developing new applications for this CPU.

Apple has done an excellent job in preparing this transition, and, even today, the developer tools designed to help facilitate this transition are efficient and easy to use. And although Intego will have more work than some software companies as our software works at a very low level in the OS, we are nevertheless delighted to make this change. Intego's existing products will not be compatible with Intel-based Macs, so customers buying these new Macs will have to update their software to new versions.

However, these Intego updates will be available on the day that the first Intel-based Mac is released. Intego has already developed software for Intel processors for internal projects, and is comfortable developing for a variety of CPUs. The day that the first Apple computers with Intel processors are available, Intego software compatible with this new processor will be available as well."

Aquafadas, Matthieu, Lead Engineer :
"Our product is built using Cocoa and XCode. Making an universal binary for it will take us no time. We will therefore ship a Universal Binary for iDive (and its companion products) on the day when the first Intel based Macs will be marketed."

App4Mac, Patrice Caligaris, CEO :
"App4Mac software's team is really happy about the intel switch. We think that market share of the Mac platform will grow very quickly and that IT customers will look more seriously at the platform. By the way, Mac OS X will have better visibility than Linux because of the power of Apple's marketing. The Mac future is brillant and we are fully commited to adapt
our applications to the new platform (all of our applications are made with XCode)."

As you see, these comments confirm that most of the developers are optimist and feel already commited to the new platform. However it's interesting to also read InsideMacGames' feature, posted last week, which mentions some opinions of Mac Game developers who are not so optimist about the switch to Intel.

We've received so many comments by developers that a part three article should be posted very soon, your comments are still welcome.

[part I] [part II] [part III]