Bloomberg: Apple Said to Be Exploring Switch From Intel Chips for the Mac

[Bret Williams]

They’re not even using the best intel has to offer. Not sure why they’d want to so this. More evidence that there’s an iMac pro in the works, and not a MacPro.

[Tim Wilson]

[Bret Williams] “More evidence that there’s an iMac pro in the works, and not a MacPro.”

Probably truer than not, but not based on the Intel intel. (See what I did there?)

Apple has been the top OEM semiconductor buyer since 2010 – they bought 24% of everything out there in 2011. (#2 was Samsung, with 14.8%.) And Apple is expected to show a 12% increase over that in 2012! Linky.

When you’re buying up 27% of an entire tech sector all by yourself, you’re in a position to dictate pretty strong terms. They’ve also bought a number of chip companies, and entered into strong partnerships with others. I know that building desktop chips isn’t the same as building mobile chips, which is what most of their custom fab has been until now….but who knows? This could be the shot fired over Intel’s bow for them to get more aligned with Apple’s needs…or maybe Apple is ready to put its stamp on another business.

Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW

[Willy Pimentel]

If apple is able to match intel Oferings that will result in bigger profits.

Willy Pimentel
Motion Graphics Editor
Macbook Pro 2011 thunderbolt/ TBolt Displey/ 2 SSD Hds /lacie Tbolt

[Devin Crane]

This is just a negotiation ploy to get a better deal from Intel. I don’t buy it, Apple is selling more Macs than ever to new users based on they can install and run Windows programs on them. My bosses who made fun of me for years for being a “Mac guy” bought their first Macs this year since they can install Parralles on them and run there PC software.

[Mark Bein]

Even if Bloomberg made that up, there would e a 99% chance that they are right.
You’d expect one of the biggest companies in the world to look a few years ahead.

[Jeremy Garchow]

This type of reasoning seems to be some sort of meme, i.e. Everything Apple will do will be for iOS.

While its a good chunk of biz, they still need OSX to build iOS, which means they’ll need traditional personal computers.

And Thunderbolt goes down the tubes without intel.

[Walter Soyka]

[willy pimentel] “If apple is able to match intel Oferings that will result in bigger profits.”

I think one of the points in the article is that Apple doesn’t need to match Intel’s offerings. If computers are “fast enough” for the general population now, how can you sell them faster computers?

If the expectation for what a computer should do changes, then the expectation for how to build one can change, too. Sizzle cores don’t help with email, web browsing, and watching videos.

Check out the new iPad 4 benchmarks [link] — they’re comparable to G5 systems [link], and just a touch under the original MacBook Air. Not bad for a $500 handheld device that runs for 10 hours on battery.

If mobility matters more than performance, Intel loses.

The question is whether Apple will pursue this shift with the Mac line.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Marcus Moore]

Good take on this:

https://allthingsd.com/20121106/will-apple-switch-the-mac-to-arm-why-the-rumors-do-and-dont-ring-true/

[Walter Soyka]

[Jeremy Garchow] “This type of reasoning seems to be some sort of meme, i.e. Everything Apple will do will be for iOS. While its a good chunk of biz, they still need OSX to build iOS, which means they’ll need traditional personal computers. “

There’s no reason OS X couldn’t run on ARM. I think the question of iOS/OSX merging and Intel vs. ARM architectures in desktop machines are separate.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Devin Crane] “Apple is selling more Macs than ever to new users based on they can install and run Windows programs on them. My bosses who made fun of me for years for being a “Mac guy” bought their first Macs this year since they can install Parralles on them and run there PC software.”

Apple sure doesn’t market Macs this way. The big reason a couple years ago to buy a Mac was that it was better than Vista (“it was a really good paper!”). The big reason to buy a Mac today is that iCloud on your laptop or desktop will be sweet with your iPhone and iPad.

I think that the Parallels/Fusion/Boot Camp thing has become progressively less important as the Mac has gained popularity and attracted developers building more native apps.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events