The poll conducted by iTWire over 24 hours had 202 respondents to the question: Will your next PC be an Intel Mac? 100 said yes and 102 said no. Although this was just a straw poll, it indicates that Apple looks set to capture a fair share of the new PCs market and may be able to compete head to head with the established Wintel players.

With the ability to dual boot Windows and a number of retailers already pre-loading Windows on the new Intel Macs, PC buyers at the premium end of the market will almost certainly take a look at Macs as an option. Buyers at the next level down may also be tempted to move up a grade. A dual boot Mac and Windows machine could also be a hit with families.

Whatever the reason, the Apple look likes it may succeed in confounding a few market pundits in the coming quarter which had previously written it off as a serious computer player. If Apple brings out a mobile phone iPod device anytime soon, this could be a new watershed year for the company, which is rapidly re-establishing itself as a consumer IT innovator. {moscomment}