Sign of Mac’s Growing Presence

Of course we already know that Apple’s Mac hardware has enjoyed steady growth in the market share of desktop and notebook computers. But it is always a pleasant surprise to see it featured in TV programmes, movies, and other mass media. A colleague pointed out something interesting. The web configuration interface of our new Cisco Wireless LAN Controller features a Mac in the splash screen welcome page.

It’s not a very modern Mac computer though. It looks like a Powerbook G4, which runs the PowerPC CPU that is now obsolete. (Apple does not sell PowerPC based desktops or notebooks anymore.)

I think the day will come where Macs would be equally important as Wintel computers, and manufacturers of peripherals, accessories, and other gadgets and devices that are meant to work with computers, will have to properly support both Wintel and Mac platforms right from the start.

Or, more interestingly, perhaps Wintel and Mac camps will come up with a universal way for independent drivers or modules to work on both platforms at the same time. I guess this is beginning to sound like EFI device drivers. Whatever form it takes, do what is needed to unify the different operating platforms. Then again, I imagine Microsoft would be opposed to this idea.