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It's easy to mistake causation with regard to Apple's decisions. Did 64-bit became popular because it was better ? Or did 64-bit became popular because Apple ch
by petra 11y ago
It's easy to mistake causation with regard to Apple's decisions. Did 64-bit became popular because it was better ? Or did 64-bit became popular because Apple chose it and it became a marketing term ?
>> be the first to bet on powerful GPUs
Sure they are the first to bet on expensive stuff - they have the most margin and sales, a more profitable ecosystem - so it's easier to justify the risk of more complex coding(by an app developer), etc.
>> I hear they have been designing their own GPU for many years now
From what i hear, they use the best of Imagination , while locking it out of the industry. But i would be happy to learn otherwise.
And i'm not saying Apple didn't create an impressive chip, but creating impressive chips is much easier than sustaining a good business for them.
Also ,the real power of the chip is for marketing - one critical tool in building luxury brands is a story about unique creation ,creating stuff that nobody else can do ,etc. So that's a very valuable story.
- monocasa 11y agoThey have a ~10% stake in Imagination. That's pretty close to a controlling amount for practical purposes for a publicly traded company.
- Aissen 11y agoYes, and they don't need a stake in the company, as long as they are responsible for more than 10% of the revenue of the company, they basically have a say in the roadmap. If they ever chose to release their own GPU, they'll be sure to sell their stock on the same day the device using it is released.
- mineshaftgap 11y agoI understand people hate apple, but saying they are creating their own chips for marketing purposes is just delusional.
- Aissen 11y agoRegarding 64-bit/ARMv8: it was just the better choice, for many applications: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/4 I don't see why it would be more complex coding, I'm pretty sure the move to ARMv8 was transparent to most developers (as it should be). They use the best of Imagination because of the ambitious goals, and because no one is even trying to push the boundaries; I'm not sure they have exclusivity on the designs, they just have a better SoC integration team, while TI choked on OMAP5 after the years of delay. Another bet for which they were the first: UFS PCIe storage, on mobile. The storage performance crushes all competition, it's sad. Honestly, most people don't know what a SoC is, so no, it's not a marketing ploy, even if Apple is marketing company. It's a (huge) technical bet.