Apple reported to drop Intel as chipmaker as early as 2020 to use its own silicon

Two giants: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini join forces in 2005 to bring Intel chips to the Mac ecosystemBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple and its Mac computers have long been held back by the features and availability of Intel chipsets which are being used in MacBooks as well as iMacs. Apple has found great success with custom silicon, even acquiring various processor chipmakers like Intrinsity and Passif to help development of their A series processors used in iPhones and iPads, news from Bloomberg Technology hints that Apple will shift from Intel to its own chips in laptops and desktops by 2020.

The news, which affected Intel shares and caused a sudden drop by 9.2 per cent, even if Apple only makes up 5 per cent of Intel's processor business. Apple and Intel got into an exclusive partnership in 2005 when IBM's PowerPC processors were hitting a threshold in performance. It took Apple a year to make the transition and it never looked back, until now.

Intel supplies most of the processors for popular PCs and Macs. Their release cadence, which is usually delayed, impacts the release schedule of new devices and even the availability of new technologies on new devices. By breaking away from Intel, Apple will gain unparalleled autonomy and can better dictate the direction of their products. 

Apple can claim to truly make 'the whole widget' with custom silicon and even bring some sort of integration between iOS and macOS. A project codenamed Kalamata, currently in the early development, seeks to make iOS devices and Macs work more seamlessly. The end result could be interoperability or the capability to run both operating systems (and their respective treasure trove of apps) simultaneously. 

Knowing how Apple likes to laser focus and seamlessly develop software to take full advantage of hardware, this could allow them to bring iPhone-like performance, battery power and connectivity to the MacBook line. This is parallel to how Microsoft is using ARM processors to make low-power, long-battery life and always connected laptops in their Windows on ARM initiative. 

“We think that Apple is looking at ways to further integrate their hardware and software platforms, and they’ve clearly made some moves in this space, trying to integrate iOS and macOS,” said Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross Research. “It makes sense that they’re going in this direction. If you look at incremental R&D spend, it’s gone into ways to try to vertically integrate their components so they can add more functionality for competitive differentiation.”

Source: Bloomberg Technology