You think that Intel won't sell this to anyone besides Apple? No, I'm betting in exchange for covering a bit of their development costs (and continuing to use Intel on everything), Apple got first dibs on it. Expect this kind of stuff to show up in Dell/HP/Lenovo products in 9-18 months. They'll probably not be as thin or as tightly integrated, but they will have the benefit of 9 extra months of watching ThinAir Macs fail in the field.
Not a question of clout, in the end it came down to how much Intel was going to be able to charge Apple for these "special" chips. The package would've been in the works but for 45nm not 65nm.
I liked the MacBook Air better when the explanation for how they got it to fit in that small of a form factor was that little green men left Jobs a shrink ray.
In 9-18 months, Apple will have a refresh on the MacBook Air. I'm sure there will be problems, but it's not like Dell/HP/etc. will have an upper hand... quite the contrary, Apple will have already have sold a few million of their machines before the others start.
What I'd like to see is the other not-SO-thin MacBook lines updated with some of the features of the Air, but keeping things like the integrated optical drive.
"Just goes to show how much clout Apple has with Intel."
I doubt it has anything to do with "clout", more like some good 'ole capitolism. Apple wants X, Intel says it will cost Y, Apple figures out they can charge Z for it. They go back and forth and agree on a price and it gets done. Intel makes $$$, you know the Apple marketing machine will cash in. Everybody is happy until the battery explodes. :-)
apple are the last major computer manufacturer that are 100% intel so apple are very important to apple, aspecially as their growth is much bigger than the market growth as a whole.
Dell or Toshiba wouldn't want to do the same so the question is irrelevant. Odds are that Dell, perhaps Toshiba, could and do have far greater influence over Intel products on an ongoing basis, however. Who do you think has more input, from specifications and design through validation, on Intel products, Dell or Apple? If you say Apple then you are a fool. Intel makes more money selling parts through Dell than they do through Apple. That's where the true "clout" is.
I think with Apple they always wanted to have a say in the processor design in the next little while and that's why they left IBM's PowerPC in the first place, it is that IBM isn't doing what Apple wants them to. When Apple first negotiated their contract with Intel, I think they negotiated exclusivity in return for having a say (and a hand) in the technical development of Intel's future product in addition to early access to their technologies. This is something that I do not think a lot of players in the processor industry can offer including AMD and IBM. The closest one that I can think of that comes close to Intel could be ARM but they are a different type of company altogether (Intel is a product company, but ARM is more of an IP company). The advantage to having such tight integration with another company's product development is the potential to cut cost, I remember reading an article that Intel actually helped Apple design some of their motherboards for Apple's line of Intel computers. With access to the potential pool of developers at Intel, Apple gained engineering skills while Intel gained marketing and exclusivity that only a few years ago only Dell has.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JR @ Jan 18th 2008 4:16PM
Just goes to show how much clout Apple has with Intel.
Wonder if Dell or Toshiba could have done the same, me thinks not.
Brad @ Jan 18th 2008 4:25PM
You think that Intel won't sell this to anyone besides Apple? No, I'm betting in exchange for covering a bit of their development costs (and continuing to use Intel on everything), Apple got first dibs on it. Expect this kind of stuff to show up in Dell/HP/Lenovo products in 9-18 months. They'll probably not be as thin or as tightly integrated, but they will have the benefit of 9 extra months of watching ThinAir Macs fail in the field.
System48 @ Jan 18th 2008 4:26PM
Not a question of clout, in the end it came down to how much Intel was going to be able to charge Apple for these "special" chips. The package would've been in the works but for 45nm not 65nm.
DonatoM3 @ Jan 18th 2008 4:27PM
I liked the MacBook Air better when the explanation for how they got it to fit in that small of a form factor was that little green men left Jobs a shrink ray.
bondsbw @ Jan 20th 2008 8:20AM
@Brad
In 9-18 months, Apple will have a refresh on the MacBook Air. I'm sure there will be problems, but it's not like Dell/HP/etc. will have an upper hand... quite the contrary, Apple will have already have sold a few million of their machines before the others start.
What I'd like to see is the other not-SO-thin MacBook lines updated with some of the features of the Air, but keeping things like the integrated optical drive.
Dorf @ Jan 18th 2008 4:48PM
"Just goes to show how much clout Apple has with Intel."
I doubt it has anything to do with "clout", more like some good 'ole capitolism. Apple wants X, Intel says it will cost Y, Apple figures out they can charge Z for it. They go back and forth and agree on a price and it gets done. Intel makes $$$, you know the Apple marketing machine will cash in. Everybody is happy until the battery explodes. :-)
bob @ Jan 18th 2008 5:52PM
apple are the last major computer manufacturer that are 100% intel so apple are very important to apple, aspecially as their growth is much bigger than the market growth as a whole.
craig @ Jan 19th 2008 2:30AM
Dell or Toshiba wouldn't want to do the same so the question is irrelevant. Odds are that Dell, perhaps Toshiba, could and do have far greater influence over Intel products on an ongoing basis, however. Who do you think has more input, from specifications and design through validation, on Intel products, Dell or Apple? If you say Apple then you are a fool. Intel makes more money selling parts through Dell than they do through Apple. That's where the true "clout" is.
Thomas @ Jan 19th 2008 9:06PM
I think with Apple they always wanted to have a say in the processor design in the next little while and that's why they left IBM's PowerPC in the first place, it is that IBM isn't doing what Apple wants them to. When Apple first negotiated their contract with Intel, I think they negotiated exclusivity in return for having a say (and a hand) in the technical development of Intel's future product in addition to early access to their technologies. This is something that I do not think a lot of players in the processor industry can offer including AMD and IBM. The closest one that I can think of that comes close to Intel could be ARM but they are a different type of company altogether (Intel is a product company, but ARM is more of an IP company). The advantage to having such tight integration with another company's product development is the potential to cut cost, I remember reading an article that Intel actually helped Apple design some of their motherboards for Apple's line of Intel computers. With access to the potential pool of developers at Intel, Apple gained engineering skills while Intel gained marketing and exclusivity that only a few years ago only Dell has.