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Why Doesn't Apple Buy Intel?
I saw it here: https://twitter.com/asymco/status/260181615911776256
and I think it makes total sense.
Update: here's why.
Currently Apple is doing well with chips designed in-house on their mobile devices. It's not a stretch to believe that they would like the same thing to happen on Macbooks and Mac Pros.
Buying Intel obviously will benefit them in that they'll have finer control on the chip designs for these non-mobile devices than what influence they have now.
The alternative is Apple leaving Intel platform by championing some ARM architecture, which means they'll spend a lot of resources playing catch-up with Intel designs. I believe this situation not only isn't good for Apple, but also bad for the whole industry.
- iamdave 14y agoPlease God no.
- DaNmarner 14y agoCan you provide your reasoning?
- michaelpinto 14y agoA. My understanding is that at this point Intel isn't that good at making mobile chips which is what Apple needs -- my other guess is that you'd also get into some government concerns about a monopoly
- bifrost 14y agoIntel basically owns the mobile chip market, they're in a significant portion of the non-Apple smartphones.
- DaNmarner 14y agoApple is the biggest player in the mobile market, they aren't using Intel chips in iPads or iPhone/iPod Touchs. Kindle Fires have TI chips in them. The best selling Android smartphones from Samsung/HTC/Motorola all use ARM chips. Only of late, a couple of small mobile manufacturers announced that they are releasing Intel-based devices along side of their ARM devices. I don't see what market Intel owns.
- bifrost 14y agoIt would be stupid of Apple to do so, because they have no core competency in running a semiconductor business. Apple's margins will be much better if the design and outsource the chip fab, rather than bringing it in-house. Apple purchasing Intel would also cause a large problem for the market since nobody really wants to buy from a competitor.
- brian_cloutier 14y agoFor one, all of apple's best-selling products use ARM chips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A4 Macs sell well, but most of Apple's revenue comes from iPhones and iPads. Buying Intel would require spending most of Apple's fortune, they're just not important enough to Apple to be worth it.