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Jobs might be underestimating the difficulty of designing chips and the experience of some of the companies that currently help design and produce the chips in

Jobs might be underestimating the difficulty of designing chips and the experience of some of the companies that currently help design and produce the chips in their devices. Apple may have some of the world's most brilliant engineers, but Intel, Samsung, and some of the other makers have a great deal more experience in these areas. Apple will get it done, but it'll be rockier than he expects and could even affect quality.

mcormier 18y ago
A good friend of mine shared his philosophy on fixing bicycles once. Try to fix it yourself, and if you mess it up then just bring it in to a mechanic to fix it. Apple can easily attempt to design their own chip in house, and if things get too complicated, they can switch to outsourcing.
jmagar 18y ago
I doubt very much that Jobs is underestimating the effort or the risk. This is more likely the Apple response to why an iPhone? Look, if the COTS chips within the iPhone are available to everyone, (they are), then anyone can implement the same features (they will). The COTS chip makers know this, and in fact often they put only the features that have mass appeal in their SOCs creating a lowest common denominator solution, which maximizes their market. Now consider what happens if Apple can design a chip that they, and only they use. Then the features within the iPhone will have a full lifecycle advantage over the competition; the SOC vendors will of course copy what makes the Apple feature "cool" but they will always be a generation behind...
- ajross 18y ago
  You're making the assumption that such a chip would reach market at the same time and in the same condition. The existing chip design companies are, in fact, really good at what they do, and they are rushing these things to market about as fast as can be done. Hardware product cycles are much longer than those for software, especially if you are trying to "innovate" like you posit. You can't just rev a new chipset for ever device release.
- allenbrunson 18y ago
  Apple doesn't need a chip advantage. They are able to beat the competition just fine without such a thing. There's no hardware in an iPod that couldn't be duplicated by any other company, easily. Their competitors think "Hey, we can make one of those things far cheaper, with more features." Then they produce a clunky ugly awful piece of junk which quickly fades from view. Yet another "competitor" vanquished. In the PC realm, Macs have recently become MORE like PCs, not less. Again, a hardware advantage wouldn't help at all.
- xirium 18y ago
  > I doubt very much that Jobs is underestimating the effort or the risk. Apple has already acquired PA Semi, a chip design company ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174301 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174301 ). Robert X Cringely implied that Apple could use the acquisition to reduce component costs by US$278 million or more just with the threat of switching to unproven developments ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080425_004775.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080425_0047... ).
comatose_kid 18y ago
I doubt it. Apple has some pretty impressive analog engineering talent.
Monkeyget 18y ago
Hey Steve, remember that 3.5 inch drive project? http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Hide_Under_This_Desk.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...
wmf 18y ago
Did you read the part of the article where Apple bought PA Semi, a company full of expert chip designers?

mcormier 18y ago

A good friend of mine shared his philosophy on fixing bicycles once. Try to fix it yourself, and if you mess it up then just bring it in to a mechanic to fix it. Apple can easily attempt to design their own chip in house, and if things get too complicated, they can switch to outsourcing.

jmagar 18y ago

I doubt very much that Jobs is underestimating the effort or the risk. This is more likely the Apple response to why an iPhone? Look, if the COTS chips within the iPhone are available to everyone, (they are), then anyone can implement the same features (they will). The COTS chip makers know this, and in fact often they put only the features that have mass appeal in their SOCs creating a lowest common denominator solution, which maximizes their market. Now consider what happens if Apple can design a chip that they, and only they use. Then the features within the iPhone will have a full lifecycle advantage over the competition; the SOC vendors will of course copy what makes the Apple feature "cool" but they will always be a generation behind...

ajross 18y ago
You're making the assumption that such a chip would reach market at the same time and in the same condition. The existing chip design companies are, in fact, really good at what they do, and they are rushing these things to market about as fast as can be done. Hardware product cycles are much longer than those for software, especially if you are trying to "innovate" like you posit. You can't just rev a new chipset for ever device release.
allenbrunson 18y ago
Apple doesn't need a chip advantage. They are able to beat the competition just fine without such a thing. There's no hardware in an iPod that couldn't be duplicated by any other company, easily. Their competitors think "Hey, we can make one of those things far cheaper, with more features." Then they produce a clunky ugly awful piece of junk which quickly fades from view. Yet another "competitor" vanquished. In the PC realm, Macs have recently become MORE like PCs, not less. Again, a hardware advantage wouldn't help at all.
xirium 18y ago
> I doubt very much that Jobs is underestimating the effort or the risk. Apple has already acquired PA Semi, a chip design company ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174301 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=174301 ). Robert X Cringely implied that Apple could use the acquisition to reduce component costs by US$278 million or more just with the threat of switching to unproven developments ( http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080425_004775.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080425_0047... ).

comatose_kid 18y ago

I doubt it. Apple has some pretty impressive analog engineering talent.

Monkeyget 18y ago

Hey Steve, remember that 3.5 inch drive project? http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Hide_Under_This_Desk.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...

wmf 18y ago

Did you read the part of the article where Apple bought PA Semi, a company full of expert chip designers?