Poor, Poor Panda

I've had a few posts here where I have pointed out some of the shortcomings of Apple's sustainability model, so I thought I would include this one to illustrate some of the more positive examples of their behavior. Note that I actually really like Apple, they are one of the most innovative companies out there and have been for years.

So, the post. Angry Panda is has a nice post here connecting the dots between Peak Oil and energy use, suggesting that the reason for Apple switching over to the Intel processor is really, as Apple claims, that performance per watt is better. Mr. Panda hacks and slashes at the question as to whether Apple did this because they knew Peak Oil was right around the bend. As a sideline, if you aren't familiar with Peak Oil, here's a nice first timer from the Oil Drum. I especailly like his link to deregulation of the energy industry, which is causing massive spikes of 72 perccnt in Maryland and 59 percent in Delaware.

Certainly, Apple is doing the right thing thing here, trying to make their devices more energy efficient. In fact, energy is a big deal with the iPods, people want to go as long as possible without recharging them. As I've mentioned before, consumers are willing to pay more for a green apple.

It's the right thing to do - it is enough to compete with other technologies such as Sun Microsystem's Sun Ray, or the Linux Terminal Server Project? Probably not in the networked world, but they are getting to a level playing field.