Neil Hughes
Apple's plans to build the new facility came about before the company even entered into talks to buy Anobit, Israel's Globes reported on Wednesday. The new development center will reportedly be headed by Aharon Aharon, who is a veteran in Israel's technology industry.
The Israel facility will reportedly be Apple's first strategic development center located outside of the company's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters. All activities not on the company's campus have previously been related to marketing, sales and support.
"Aharon is scheduled to spend several months at Apple headquarters in Cupertino before returning to Israel to begin activities at the Apple Israel development center," the report said. "Aharon will begin operations regardless of whether Apple buys an Israeli company, and will begin hiring staff suitable for the U.S. company's planned areas of activity."
In preparation for the rumored facility, the report said that Apple's vice president of research and development, Ed Frank, is currently visiting in Israel.
The latest rumor comes just a day after it was said that Apple is planning to purchase Anobit for between $450 and $500 million. Anobit is an Israel-based NAND flash memory company that already supplies components to Apple for products like the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.
Wednesday's report from Globes claimed that Apple's acquisition of Anobit would result in savings of between 10 and 20 percent for the company's acquisition of flash memory. The rumored deal is seen as a strategic move similar to Apple's purchase of P.A. Semi in 2008, which set the stage for the company to design its own ARM-based mobile processors for the iPhone and iPad.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
45 Comments
Now Apple can have their own line of chips based on Hebrew place names?
Seems like a shaky region in which to build a facility. Must be some geo-political strategy involved in this decision, because as a business decision it makes little sense. For a company that needs both diverse and stable suppliers, this is a doubtful strategy.
Brace yourself for boycotts from more radical elements of Arab states
Seems like a shaky region in which to build a facility. Must be some geo-political strategy involved in this decision, because as a business decision it makes little sense. For a company that needs both diverse and stable suppliers, this is a doubtful strategy.
The region is shaky indeed, but Israel is stable. Many great companies have R&D centers in Israel: Intel, Google, GE, MS, Cisco and many more. Israel excels in R&D and especially in semiconductors, communications and software. It makes perfect sense for Apple to be in Israel since their products and probably their future plans require such R&D muscle.
Go Israel!
Brace yourself for boycotts from more radical elements of Arab states
The spaceship has just been placed on the future targets list.