WSJ: Apple moving into chip design

What Mac does well: software, in particular elegant interfaces, interoperability.
What Mac makes money on: hardware, content distribution.
The writing on the wall: Other people do hardware and distribution just as well as they do.
The solution: Softare that only runs on proprietary hardware. A Mac-only GPU seems like a way to accomplish that. That and closed-platform devices like cell phones or the legendary set-top box.

I'm not sure they're trying for an entire GPU, since that will not only be expensive, but potentially limitting down the road. My guess is that all they want is a chipset that they can pretend is offering "unique capabilities" but is really just tying down the software.

Apple's track record when it has a big pile of cash is to fritter it on developing technologies in-house that could be leveraged from industry sources. Remember Pink? Copeland (an OS that Apple spent billions developing)? PowerPC?

This is not a good sign. If Steve Jobs was healthy enough to be involved he'd be firing the people they're hiring.

In bad taste dude. Don't spam this site.

Does this move really make sense? It seems that between intel, nvidia, arm, and via, there is enough competition in the chip market to drive prices and innovation. Moving to intel did wonders for Apple. Nvidia has already demonstrated that they can do low power 1080p with the tegra. I suppose that Apple might be pushing for wifi/bluetooth/video/gsm on a single chip.

That would be pretty kick ass, actually. And if you are selling millions of iPhones, i suppose it could be worth the investment to own all the hardware and IP that goes into it.

You guys aren't seeing the picture. If you learn anything from Apple, it is to read in "between the lines", when they are hiring.

They are creating a VIDEO GAME console.

They know that video games have been a huge hit with the iPhone and with their on-demand iTunes/Apple TV delivery system, they have been able to "test-out" the infrastructure enough to know that it works.

My 2-cents, and I confident about this one.

HD everywhere, using very low power system on chips. Also - don't forget, the ability to use GPUs for regular processing in Snow Leopard on - this will be baked in to every Apple product down the road. Low power, high performance- that will give Apple a huge advantage in the market.

Microsoft it's time u guys take the apple way or the highway

Apple has been involved in chip design for a very, very long time.

Apple is putting together this dream team to do with portable computing what they did with portable mp3 players. separating themselves from the low-spec netbook trend on the PC front.

though i don't think this will change macs at all - apple gained a ton of market share and compatibility by going the intel route and allowing to boot and virtualize windows. i doubt they would ditch intel & nvidia hardware in their conventional systems.

The future is touch interface... Apple have already mastered it and will now excel in the hardware side...
Apple have the lead already and this talent transition is just spinning up the FTL [faster than

The first gen. touch interface products are here, iPhone and iPod Touch, second gen.
is MacBook Touch is almost upon us...

Third gen. is what these guys will be dreaming up for us... a wireless touch interface IT community..
:-)