Sam Oliver
Amid increasing chatter that Apple may consider migrating the Mac to its own in-house ARM processors, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich on Friday characterized the two firms' relationship as "strong" and reiterated Intel's strategy of competing for business based on performance, price, and reliability.
"Apple is always going to choose the supplier who can provide them the most amount of capability and innovation for them to build on, for them to innovate," Krzanich said during an interview with CNBC. "They're a company based on innovation. Our job is to continue to deliver parts that have that capability, that are better than our competitors, and then they want to use our parts."
Intel has long leaned on much the same response when asked about the possibility of an ARM-powered Mac. "We hear the same rumors and it would be remiss of us to be dismissive. We endeavor to innovate so they'll continue to look to us as a supplier," Intel's Ultrabook chief Greg Welch said when asked about Apple's potential plans in 2011.
The long-running rumors returned to the foreground after twin reports from KGI Securities' analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and JP Morgan's Rod Hall, released earlier this week, suggested that Apple may be able to increase the performance of its A-series chips to match that of Intel's lower-level desktop processors within the next two years. As AppleInsider has detailed, such a move could prove beneficial, though there are a number of hurdles to overcome.
Krzanich also took the opportunity on Friday to remind investors that Apple is only one of Intel's numerous large clients.
"I wake up every morning making sure that across the board, whether it's Apple or Lenovo or Dell or any of our customers, we have to provide the most competitive part," he added.
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54 Comments
I can see it 5 years from now...Intel will only be in Pro level Macs. Mac Air and Mini may run on custom Apple chips.
Uh oh! Intel's CEO talking about how Apple would want them as a customer that would want their product makes me think my long-held, idle hypothesis about an ARM-based Mac might actually have some weight today. [QUOTE]"Apple is always going to choose the supplier who can provide them the most amount of capability and innovation for them to build on, for them to innovate," Krzanich said during an interview with CNBC. "They're a company based on innovation. [/QUOTE] Of course, but so far the most innovation and capability in processors over the last few years has come from Apple's own chip designs.
If Intel has demonstrated something in its history is that it can innovate. Remember the Apple "PowerPC trounces Intel" FIASCO. Hopefully, Apple learned the lesson once and for all.
[quote name="AppeX" url="/t/184349/intel-ceo-confident-chipmaker-can-keep-powering-apples-macs-by-innovating#post_2662206"]If Intel has demonstrated something in its history is that it can innovate. Remember the Apple "PowerPC trounces Intel" FIASCO. Hopefully, Apple learned the lesson once and for all.[/quote] That was IBM that dropped the ball, and the larger issue of that "FIASCO" was that Apple relied on a single vendor for the advancement of the CPUs used in their Macs, which means that for Apple not to repeat that same mistake would mean Apple shouldn't blindly trust Intel to always have the best desktop and notebook-class CPUs. History even shows us that even AMD had a substantial lead over Intel at one point, and that Intel made some other very big mistakes in their roadmaps. TL;DR: Apple should definitely invest on ARM for Mac to 1) help motivate Intel to do focused innovation in the right direction, and 2) to create fan-less Mac-like "PCs" that have more performance per watt than what Intel can currently offer at that low end, as well as with savings of hundreds of dollars per machine.
Video link: [URL]http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000347186[/URL]