Apple and Intel, Hell has gone cold again

Apple moving to Intel-processors. The rumors has been floating around the Mac-community, the know-it-all-analysts has predicted it again and again and gossip has been popping up like Windows-viruses every so often in the computer-biz since Mac OSX first launched five years ago. And yesterday it happened. Hell has definitely frozen over this time. Apple is throwing out the PowerPC-processor and replacing it with Intels x86.
It only happened yesterday, and I'm already tired of reading about it. So I'm not going to give you a sketchy analysis (will this be the end/rise of Apple?) like everyone else. Simply put, we just don't know anything more than x86 in- PPC out. But I will point out a few things I've been pondering about the switch. Please, bear with me if I say something stupid- I'm not a programmer.

• How will this affect porting of Windows-applications for the Mac? What about VirtualPC?

• Can we finally expect more and better ported games for the Mac-platform?

• Will it be easier for the Mac to compete for market-share, when the whiners that used to complain about the Macs low PPCprocessor-GHz in comparison to Intels (even though they really weren't comparable)- now can't use that as an excuse? What I'm saying is this: the only thing that will differ is the OS. Pentium4 in my Mac, Pentium4 in your PC. One ol' myth of the Macintosh will be irrelevant. Then again, Mac users has often claimed the PowerPCs supremacy. Are we taking a performance-step back, but a credibility-step forward? Credibility in the industry or by analysts or the general public, who for some reason desperately want to compare the GHz in processors- meaning higher GHz= faster computer. Even though that might not be the case.

• Another thought. Will the industry become more uniform? Even though future versions of Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox all will run on PowerPC-processors- the x86 is more dominating than ever before. Good or bad? I don't know. Is Intel going for a monopoly? (There are other manufacturers, I know, but Intel's the largest.)

• Will my future Mac come with an ugly 'Intel-inside'-sticker? I hope to hell not.