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Intel CEO Otellini: Steve Jobs ‘very happy’ with Intel’s Infineon purchase

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 · 10:20 am · 13 Comments

“Apple CEO Steve Jobs isn’t at all worried about the Intel takeover of Infineon, the CEO of Intel suggests,” MacNN reports. “Speaking with Fox Business TV, Paul Otellini says he called Jobs before making the acquisition. ‘Steve was very happy,’ he explains. ‘The industry was abuzz that this business unit was on the market, and there were a number of competing companies for it. I think they [Apple] are very happy that Intel won the bid.’”

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“Despite occasional problems Intel and Apple are close partners, necessitated by the presence of Intel CPUs in every Mac,” MacNN reports. “In the short term, at least, Apple is also somewhat dependent on Infineon, as its chipsets are used in the iPad and iPhone 3GS for 3G reception. The latter company’s acquisition by Intel may theoretically keep Infineon technology within easy reach of Apple.”

Full article, with link to video of Otellini interview, here.

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Comment Feed

13 Comments

Alasdair

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 10:29 am · Reply

Sure, I bet Steve is over the moon.
jax44

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 10:33 am · Reply

Happy like a clam.
acid

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 10:41 am · Reply

“I’m happy FOR you.”
ajdowntown

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 10:50 am · Reply

Doesn’t it seem that in this situation it seems as thou Steven Jobs is the Godfather, and Paul Otellini called to ask permission from the Godfather?
breeze

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 10:58 am · Reply

ajdowntown:

Grow up.
84 Mac Guy

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 11:08 am · Reply

@ajdowndown

Unlike Breeze, I like your analogy. I can almost see Jobs saying in a raspy voice:

Paul, someday I may call upon you for a favor. That day may never come…..
Marc

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 11:16 am · Reply

@84 Mac Guy

Also, Adobe is Fredo. “Adobe, don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family ever again. If you do, we will never allow flash on iOS devices, ever.
Federico

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 11:33 am · Reply

I would not trust otellini. These are creatures molded by WS. They all have five year plans. Plans primarily made to optimize their earning not the stockholders.
Gregg Thurman

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 11:38 am · Reply

Infineon makes a 3G chipset. After June 2012 Apple will be sourcing 4G chipsets. Could Apple be designing their own?
breeze

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 11:58 am · Reply

Survival of the fittest, always the way of the world…
Ian

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 2:44 pm · Reply

As long as Intel does not try to add a bunch of crap to these chips like they have with their CPUs. (Integrated Video)
helenacorpus

Thursday, September 2, 2010 - 2:05 am · Reply

In short, it is necessary to have the basic credentials of an undergrad degree and an MBA. You need to have a track record of progressively gaining new and challenging responsibilities within the company.
http://naturacoloncleanse.org/
Odyssey67

Thursday, September 2, 2010 - 4:09 pm · Reply

Intel bought Infineon, and pointedly notified Steve about it, as a way to counter Apple’s recent moves to make itself semi-independent of Intel in the hardware space. Theses are the kinds of moves Intel can be expected to make, until they (finally? perhaps?) decide to get seriously competitive on the engineering side, and produce something Apple wants and can use, other than desktop chips.

Intel always expected that their exclusive computer CPU deal with Apple would give them an insider’s advantage when it came to any other hardware needs Apple might have – like low-power CPUs & chipsets for iPod, iPhone, and now iPad & AppleTV. They have been surprised and disappointed that Apple has been so hard-nosed and performance driven when it comes to it’s other, more mobile products. Intel has been given no slack at all. In fact, when it was clear to Apple that Intel couldn’t/wouldn’t make what Apple wanted, there was no collaboration – Apple just made it (the A4 CPU) itself.

However, the Intel corporate mentality, developed for over 30 years with the successful Wintel duopoly, isn’t much different now than it was during the battles with AMD. Intel only innovates technologically when their cosy partnerships and anti-competitive business practices fail to protect them. Only after AMD made them look really ridiculous did Intel create the industry leading desktop/laptop/server CPUs we see from them today. This corporate mindset has deep roots, and will probably always affect what they do, as well as their expectations of what other competitors/partners will do (or why).

Intel couldn’t deliver, after multiple years, an adequate mobile CPU. Still they didn’t feel any real pressure – Apple was their main partner in the consumer space, even had helped work on the CPU they put in the MacBook Air. No need to spend time or money beyond what was already decided. They obviously didn’t expect the A4, an incredibly powerful and efficient CPU, and with a basic design that has legs going into the future.

Intel’s track record of how it responds in these types of situations is, first, to retaliate – even if passive aggressively. This was the reason for the whole issue with not supporting NVidia’s chipsets, which Apple was increasingly using at the expense of Intel’s chipsets, because Intel’s sucked. That little drama didn’t seem to most people to have much to do with Apple, but it certainly was intended to get Steve’s … “attention”. Now, with Apple’s business massively dependent on mobile chipsets, Infineon’s in particular, and Intel not able to earn their way in to that party, they’re now buying in. The message, again, is sort of like Pacino in the Godfather Pt III; ‘Just when you thought you were on your way out, we bring you back in’.

Intel doesn’t want Apple going anywhere. They know that Apple will be the pre-eminent consumer electronics company for the foreseeable future. They haven’t quite grokked to the idea that they should be building better mobile stuff to keep Apple around. It’s so much simpler to spend money trying to corral them, and stick to whatever plans they already have.

With AMD, after all the marketing tricks and legal wrangling, it was lost market share and tech leadership (their erstwhile ‘best bud’ M$ drop their 64bit implementation for AMD’s) that forced them to actually produce something. Perhaps Apple will have to design it’s own super-amazing chipsets now in order to shake Intel loose from this path again.

Either way, Steve should be prepared. Unless he’s going to cave, anything Apple does to further it’s own needs & ends will result in Intel acting like the stalker ex-boy/girlfriend who keeps calling your mom, or arranging to be with your friends when you are, and otherwise just not accepting that the relationship has changed. Or never was what they thought it was in the first place.