as apple transitions from freescale and IBM powerPC processors to intel core duo processors, mac OS X developers must deliver universal binary versions of their applications, which allow native processor performance on both the powerPC and intel platforms. it all seems fine, except once you consider that if you have legacy powerPC version of an application, it becomes completely obsolete once the developer moved to the hybrid universal version.
apple computer has announced a crossgrade program for their pro apps including, final cut studio, logic, and aperture. when these application ship, if you do no fork over the crossgrade fee, your application version will be retired. developers will not continue to support three customers: powerPC only, intel only, universal. that’s too much work to test, so you’ll need the universal version to work properly. most likely major applications will move to the universal code on the next major revision to avoid these upgrade issues. hopefully at NAB 2006, apple will revise all their applications to the next version to make moot the move to universal unnecessary for powerPC workflows.