Filed under: Apple Corporate
Fortune on the Intel-Apple relationship
Fortune has an interesting article detailing how Apple and Intel are fast on the way to becoming best buds. Apparently Intel has been more willing to accommodate Apple than some of its other customers, as demonstrated by the MacBook Air. It seems that in the design phase of the Air Apple went to Intel with the processor spec they wanted and the response was "'We don't have that,' or 'We have that on a roadmap 3-4 years from now,'" but after digging around Intel realized that they had a processor concept on the shelf that "had been put on the back burner after PC makers gave it a ho-hum reception." So they revamped it slightly and delivered it to Apple within a year. And the Air was just the beginning with several "equally aggressive" projects in the pipeline for the two companies. In short, it seems like the relationship is good for both partners, with Apple making demands that push the technology forward and Intel responding in ways that look to benefit the larger PC industry as a whole.[via Gizmodo]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
aptenergy said 3:09PM on 6-16-2008
I like the phrase "revamped slightly" =P
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aptenergy said 3:10PM on 6-16-2008
and now i realize i have no idea what revamp means.. my bad
Andrew said 4:32PM on 6-16-2008
"You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things."
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MacSlut said 6:58PM on 6-16-2008
From what I know of having worked with both companies, this makes a lot of sense. Apple has always been a "pull" company and Intel has always been a "push" company. In other words, Intel has always found itself developing technology and then trying to persuade its customers to adopt it and take things to the next level...and their customers/partners have been reluctant to do so (PC vendors and Microsoft).
Meanwhile, Apple as a premium systems vendor has always wanted to be ahead of everyone else, and has been willing to invest the extra resources to do so. Unfortunately, prior to switching to Intel, Apple has had to deal with vendors that were much more massive project oriented to deal with any technology which was small scale, even if it could be the next innovative thing that could change everything.
The move to Intel by Apple is definitely one of the best decisions Apple ever made...or put another way...had they not moved to Intel, not only would they have lost out on all the dual-boot switchers, nor would they have had a custom chip for the MacBook Air, but...it's much, much worse than that...imagine instead of the Core 2 Duos, we were still stuck with G4s in Mac notebooks. Because that *is* where we would be today.
Ouch!
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Big John said 8:34PM on 6-16-2008
Macs are what happens when hardware and software are developed together. The Apple-Intel relationship can only be good for Mac users as time goes on.
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Leehblanc said 10:00PM on 6-16-2008
I am really curious what the several "equally aggressive" projects are? Sub notebook, maybe? Slimmer MB and MBP with longer battery life? Interesting
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Gareth Ablett said 3:51AM on 6-17-2008
so to get around problems with mergers commission, Apple purchase chip developers (can't remember the name but the ones that used to make the army chips) and possibly incorporate tech into intel's lineup.
no proof but sounds possible.
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