Intel Execs Say Apple, iPhone Not Very Smart
9:53 am, October 22nd, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Photo credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au
Senior executives from Intel yesterday called Apple’s bet on ARM chipset technology for its mobile phone platform “not very smart.”
Pankaj Kedia, director of ecosystems for Intel’s ultra-mobility group told attendees at the Intel Developers Forum in Taiwan, “I know what their roadmap is, I know where they’re going and I’m not worried.”
Kedi appeared with Shane Wall, Intel mobility group VP and director of strategic planning, who said iPhone “struggles” running any application that “requires any sort of horsepower at all.” Their comments came on a day when Apple reported 4Q earnings and, in particular, sales of the iPhone roundly acknowledged as a “home run.”
Kedia tarred the entire smartphone market with the same brush, saying reliance on ARM technology makes “”the smartphone of today … not very smart.”
Of course Intel has a dog in this fight, as the chipmaker is known to be working on a mobility chipset of its own, known as Moorestown, and is likely feeling left out of Apple’s earnings party, having been rebuffed by the company’s purchase of P.A. Semi and its decision to develop iPhone ARM chips in-house.
Wall brushed off the success of the iPhone as a phenomenon combining clever UI and Steve Jobs’ knack for hype.
Claiming Intel processors achieve two to three times the performance of ARM equivalents, Wall said “”If you want to run full internet [on a mobile platform], you’re going to have to run an Intel-based architecture.”
For his part, Jobs joined an Apple earnings call yesterday for the first time since 2000 to celebrate the company’s success with the iPhone, telling those who wonder when Apple will start selling a less-expensive “netbook” computer that the iPhone is already leading that nascent market segment. He also said his company “had some pretty interesting” ideas if the category continues to evolve.
And so, the gauntlet in the mobile platform war appears to have been thrown. Let the chips fall where they may.
Via ZDNet
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Hardware, News, iPhone | Comment on this article
Oh… So my Powerbook G4 TiBooke can’t “run the full internet…” It’s both mobile (A notebook), and it have a PowerPC G4 CPU (No Intel inside).
Kent W, on October 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
PS.
Yes I know it’s not at iPhone.
That is my TiBook
Kent W, on October 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am
The thing is… iPhones DO run the full internet (Flash aside, and that’ll be addressed with SproutCore or whatever, eventually – or maybe Apple will cave to Adobe). If Wall meant “run the full internet [as fast as any laptop or desktop]” or “run the full internet [while multitasking with other applications],” then he’d have an argument.
At this point, though, it’s just the biased opinion of a left-out chip-maker.
SproutCore info: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/19/Adobe_works_on_Flash_for_iPhone_as_Apple_looks_to_Sprout_1.html
GGeek, on October 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
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