"Apple has been experimenting with x86 processors for some time, and in fact Steve Jobs revealed what has been rumored for years that a secret team inside Apple has had their OSes running on x86 for over five years. OS X was developed as much on x86 hardware as it was on PowerPC. SO if Apple wanted to, they could have offered OS X to the x86 world a year ago. However, Leopard the new x86 version of OS X will not come out until 2006 about the same time Longhorn comes out."