Apple has announced an eMac Repair Extension program for eMacs that were sold between April 2004 and June 2005 and are experiencing scrambled and/or distorted video, no video, or no power. Users who feel that their eMac may be affected by the issue can learn more about the program by visiting the program's site.

This issue was initially brought to light on various discussion boards and was highlighted in a page 2 story. A common issue with the affected Macs were bulging and cracked capacitors on the logic board.

A new Gartner report (reported by AppleInsider) notes that despite increased sales, the Mac has yet to gain a market share increase.

The report, however, partially conflicts with a previous ZDNet report based on preliminary Gartner data.

U.S. Mac Market Share
1Q 2005: 3.8%
4Q 2005 (AI): 3.5%
1Q 2006 (ZDNet): 3.5%
1Q 2006 (AI): 3.6%

Worldwide Mac Market Share
1Q 2005: 2.2%
1Q 2006 (ZDNet): 2.3%
1Q 2006 (AI): 2.0%

The PC industry as a whole is growing, with overall PC shipments in the U.S. booming 7.4% quarter over quarter and 13.1% year over year, so Mac sales would have to increase at a greater rate than the market as a whole in order for the Mac's market share to increase. Similarly, if Apple does not keep pace with the market, its share will decrease.

In a time when many users interested in buying a Mac have been waiting for Intel-based versions, Apple roughly maintaining its current market share is perhaps a feat unto itself. AppleInsider provides the following analysis:

To Apple's credit, [the .1%] uptick in U.S. PC market share was achieved during a quarter when most prospective Mac buyers were prolonging their computer purchases in favor new Intel-based models that had yet to come to market. This suggests the company could begin to realize some share gains in the latter half of the year, once all of its PC offerings are readily available with Intel processors.

Also from the report, Dell is beginning to lose some ground to rival HP. HP's worldwide market share increased 1.1%, while Dell lost 0.4% according to the report. Similar trends were also present for the companies' respective U.S. market shares.

DailyTech has updated its roadmap for Intel processors, giving a clue as to what can be seen in future Macs. At launch in August, Intel's Merom mobile CPU will come in ranging from 1.66 to 2.33 Ghz, and ranging in price from $209 to $637 which is comparable to Intel's current lineup's initial price points.

While initial Merom CPU's will use 667 Mhz Front Side Busses that exist today, a Q2 2007 refresh and new "socket P" rollout is slated to bump that speed to 800 Mhz.

In related news, Daily Tech also has uncovered plans for a single-core Conroe chip, named "Conroe-L." While interesting, it is doubtful that this chip will make its way into many, if any future Macs. Currently, the lowest-priced Mac Mini is the only Mac to use Intel's Core Solo processor.

AppleInsider reports that Apple is working on a new all-in-one Mac for education, to replace the phased-out eMac, and that Apple is targeting release in the "September timeframe" 2006. If so, Apple would catch only the tail end of the purchase cycle for the school year beginning this Fall, since many educational institutions, faculty, and students are already planning their next purchases.

The upcoming model is said to have a design similar to the current iMac, with a single enclosure, LCD screen, and Intel processor. It is not clear whether it will simply be a lower-end iMac or be a distinct model line. Apple's challenge will be to keep the price down, despite the switch to LCD displays, because of the competitive pressures in the education market.

The CRT-based eMac has had its share of ups and downs over the years. Introduced in April 2002, the eMac was first sold only to education customers, but Apple soon added the eMac to its consumer line by popular demand. In efforts to keep the eMac up to date, Apple gave the eMac occasional price drops and speed bumps as demand waned, and rumors of the eMac's demise have circulated since as long ago as March 2004. The eMac line received a quiet update in May 2005. In October 2005, Apple dropped the eMac from its retail line and let inventory run down in the education channel.

It appears as though a significant number of 1.25 Ghz eMac users are suffering from logic board breakdowns that cause video to become distorted. Although Apple's included diagnostic utilities indicate that all hardware is operating normally, opening up the machines reveals bulging and cracked capacitors.

Most of the issues are occurring out of the eMac's 1-year standard warranty, and Apple has yet to set up any sort of extended repair service (although some are having limited success getting their machines repaired for free by noting the Apple discussion thread).

Raw Data:
Apple Discussion Board
Macintouch User Reports
(more reports in forum thread)

One thing not mentioned in today's media event was the mysterious disappearance of the eMac from Apple's online stores.

While http://www.apple.com/emac/ still loads, clicking the "buy now" button only leads to the online store's main page, where the eMac is noticeably absent.
Scroll down for further announcements today.

An Intel based Macintosh?

Rumors of Apple switching to an Intel based processor pre-date the existence of this site. The earliest reference in our archives comes from March 15, 2000 (this site was founded in Feb 2000). For some perspective... a rumor roundup for WWDC 2000 (5 years ago) included rumors of "Intel-based Macs".

Analysts also "urged Apple to move to microchips from Intel Corp" back in July 2002. Steve Jobs replied that they had to finish the OS 9 -> OS X transition first but "Then we'll have options, and we like to have options. But right now, between Motorola and IBM, the roadmap looks pretty decent."

After the transition to Mac OS X, Apple was reported to have kept an OS X on x86 side-project known as Marklar. The original article described Marklar as a "fall back plan" should the PowerPC fail to deliver.

The PowerPC was undergoing slow development during that time until IBM took over development and Apple announced PowerPC G5 based PowerMacs in the summer on 2003.

In fact, IBM bragged in an internal memo that while Apple considered moving to Intel at that time they went with IBM's PowerPC G5 (970) because Apple felt the transition to Intel would be too difficult:

While Intel is aggressive in achieving its performance and speed goals, Apple believed that using Intel would deeply affect its current customer base. Using an Intel architecture might solve Apple's short-term megahertz dilemma, but customers would have to suffer through a slow transition from PowerPC over the long term. Every existing Mac program would potentially have to be recompiled to work on an Intel platform. These massive software changes were something that Apple wanted to avoid, and IBM had the solution."

Despite this, Apple/Intel rumors continued to surface (Sept 2003).

Most recently, The Wall Street Journal posted rumors citing "two industry executives" that Apple will agree to use Intel chips. Due to the long history of this topic, this rumor was largely dismissed. However, on Friday, CNet posted a report claiming that Apple will be announcing a plan to switch its computers to Intel based microprocessors on Monday at WWDC. The gradual transition would take place starting in mid-2006 and last until mid-2007.

So what's different this time?

The most striking aspect is the origination of rumors from more traditional news sources (CNet and the Wall Street Journal). In the hierarchy of rumor sources, these news sites are traditionally more accurate as they tend to be more selective about their stories than dedicated rumor sites. As a result, the likelihood that these rumors are true is high. By our records, CNet has only made one major rumor misstep in Jan 2003 claiming the release of new Digital Media Device at MWSF 2003.

That being said, it doesn't answer the many other questions that would stem from such a transition. Questions such as emulation layers, current PowerPC Mac sales, developer migration, end user confusion and more. As well, Steve Jobs was recently asked about the possibility of switching to Intel and reportedly "Jobs basically said no."

Stay tuned for the WWDC Keynote on Monday, June 6th at 10am PST. We will provide live coverage of the event and have dramatically expanded our delivery resources and technology to provide the best Keynote coverage experience possible.

Update: New York Times claims the same.

Update 2: Legal Counsel for Transitive Technologies has posted to bio: Transitive Technologies: Represented Transitive Technologies in a co-development and licensing agreement with Apple Computer. Transitive was the focal point of a Page 2 story regarding their "Dynamite" which allowed code written for one CPU to be run efficiently on another CPU. This "translator" was said to dynamically translate and accelerate binaries -- claiming to provide substantial performance over traditional "emulators".

Alongside new iMac updates, Apple also quietly released a new eMac today.

1.42GHz PowerPC G4, 256MB RAM, Combo Drive: $799
1.42GHz PowerPC G4, 512MB RAM, Super Drive: $999

Now shipping with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).
eMac and iMac updates have been reflected in the Buyer's Guide

Appleinsider reports that Apple may have some more updates in the wings as early as this week.

According to the rumor site, Apple is expected to release an updated version of iTunes (4.8) which will offer routine upgrades as well as "support for a new wave of international music stores". The software is expected as early as the first week of May.

As well, there are further hints at iMac G5 and eMac updates. The new systems are reported to be shipping to dealers this week. No word on iBook updates, however... which have also been anticipated.

ThinkSecret maintains that iMac and eMac updates are just around the corner and could ship "as soon as Friday, alongside Tiger".

A previous report gave use expected specs for the anticipated updates.

Appleinsider provides summary of upcoming hardware updates that have been tossed about.

One new tidbit is the expectation that new Macs will be introduced on April 26th (Tuesday).

ThinkSecret adds to their previous report on upcoming PowerMac G5s.

According to the rumor site, the innards of the PowerMacs will not be dramatically improved. No PCI-X 2.0 or PCI Express slots. No Blue-Ray support, and only single-core PowerPC 970FX processors -- and not the 970MP processors that has been long hoped for.

ThinkSecret places PowerMac, eMac and iMac updates in the next "two weeks".