Comments on: Intel starts $300m Ultrabook Fund to spur MacBook Air-alikes

By: krquet

krquet — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:28:33 +0000

Predrag:
I can’t think of any clear example of this: Apple abandoning their partners by either developing their own solution or partnering with someone else without any provocation, can you help?

By: qka

qka — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:46:34 +0000

True that too.

By: qka

qka — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:41:36 +0000

As always, you can make them look as much like Macs as trade dress statues will allow, but inside there’s no Mac OS X, only Windows – and that, as we all know so well, makes all the difference in the world. But, but, but A total of $300 million will go towards companies building the ultraportables as well as software to take advantage of them. Won't that be better than Windows? /sarcasm

By: Spade

Spade — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:35:59 +0000

This was my thought as well – why else would Intel do something like this, knowing Apple would be less than happy about it? I’d say they’re simply hedging their bets, trying to give themselves some extra cushion and/or leverage in future negotiations with Apple.

It does make good business sense for them to have some kind of backup plan once ARM gets to the point where it could handle OS X, so they’re not completely dependent on Apple for their “ultra mobile” ambitions.

By: Dmitri

Dmitri — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:30:34 +0000

Wow, they sure are innovating!

By: Predrag

Predrag — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:19:20 +0000

Well, Apple wasn’t exactly the most considerate partner either. There are many Apple partners that were once very tight, until Apple abandoned them by either developing their own solution, including a feature in OS, or going with someone else.

There is no eternal love in the world of business, and successful businesses know this.

By: althegeo

althegeo — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:09:26 +0000

Isn’t that strange. In the same predicament, I’m keeping the iPad, giving the iPhone to the wife and getting a severely dumb cell phone for a very low monthly rate and no contract.

The iMac at home will fill in the gaps.

By: Jax44

Jax44 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:53:24 +0000

True that.

By: trondude

trondude — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:52:16 +0000

Intel – idiot inside and out

By: _Bill_

_Bill_ — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:40:20 +0000

Wow, a fund to make a certain type of laptop. Is this normal; have they done this before? Don’t they realize that the more popular MacBook Airs get, the more money they (Intel) make? Is Intel afraid of Apple switching to AMD?

By: when I was in Japan ...

when I was in Japan ... — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:39:17 +0000

… my local co-workers had three options for writing any word: syllabic Japanese, pictographic Japanese, and Romaji (English). Any sentence could be made up of all three forms. It was … informative and entertaining. They would agree with you … 2¢, rather than $0.02, three keys pushed rather than six. The understanding is unchanged, but the typist needs to know the code for ¢, not all of us do.
This article was accompanied by an ad for Goldline – a company that sells gold coins for much more than their worth and buys them back for much less than their worth. And Glenn Beck has been shown to be more an investor in Goldline than in gold coins. In essence, the company and its spokesman have been accused of rank fraud. MDN, are you sure you want to be subjecting your followers to liars and cheats?

By: spyinthesky

spyinthesky — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:13:52 +0000

Right so they are copying one Apple product to try to fight off competition from another. Seem to have given up fighting Apple with others ideas altogether now.

By: KenC

KenC — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:12:09 +0000

What’s truly sad is that Intel needs to subsidize mfrs to build what they should be doing without incentives. Are these companies that stupid?

By: m159

m159 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:58:15 +0000

Typically, no-one in the non-Apple world else has any ideas except to copy Apple’s recent victories. And then Intel acting like a government subsidizer because of the dysfunction of the non-Apple world.

By: Ballmer's left nut

Ballmer's left nut — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:57:34 +0000

Starting with Microsoft and the Word for Mac program, extending to Eric the Mole, Samsung, and now Intel, every partner of Apple has found an opportunity of backstabbing them at the earliest possible moment.

By: Ballmer's left nut

Ballmer's left nut — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:54:47 +0000

Obviously they’re still waiting for Apple to invent the puck for them so the photocopiers can churn furiously away.

By: Ballmer's left nut

Ballmer's left nut — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:53:04 +0000

No harm in aiming low, knowing full well that Windows shit doesn’t sell.

By: Ballmer's left nut

Ballmer's left nut — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:50:57 +0000

Unfortunately the concept remains ‘flawed’ as long as you have Windows installed by default on it.

By: Jax44

Jax44 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:48:31 +0000

Spot on. Become a partner, so to speak. No backstabbing allowed.

By: Ballmer's left nut

Ballmer's left nut — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:47:14 +0000

Wouldn’t it be less strenuous for you to write ‘just my 2¢’ instead of $0.02?

By: Michael A. Robson

Michael A. Robson — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:32:26 +0000

Ha. With friends like Intel, who needs enemies

By: krquet

krquet — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:28:50 +0000

The sad part is, Intel here is trying to brace for the eventuality when Windows will abandon them for the ARM processors.

A better effort, in my unprofessional opinion, would have been to become a foundry building custom SoCs for Apple and perhaps other components that they can bring back from Asia.

Get on the Apple cart; betting against Steve Jobs, if history and empirical evidence is anything to go by, is a fast path towards loserville.

By: ramiuseng

ramiuseng — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:20:20 +0000

Everybody in the industry has known for well over 20 years that the day there was a high density solid state replacement to hard drives, that very light weight lap top computers were going to be the hot product. Apple does not sell ultra-light weight PC’s with their MBA product….they sell ultra-light weight Macs and that is much better.

just my $0.02

By: MadMatt

MadMatt — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:19:49 +0000

I thought you meant DELL

By: jeffmac7101

jeffmac7101 — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:15:37 +0000

$300 million total, spent over, let’s say, 3.5 years = $85.71M / year. Spread among, let’s say, 4 “capable” “competitors” = $21M each per year. Hmmm. That won’t even get them to where the puck currently is.

By: Federico

Federico — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:14:12 +0000

hilarious. 300 million spread out over three years is 100 million a year. Based on intel’s estimated cost of materials of $700, this is 140000 units a year. Assuming this is a kickback of 200 per unit, that is still only 600k units a year.

By: s

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:11:27 +0000

Intel sees the future. They realize their time on Apple gravy train is numbered.

By: alanaudio

alanaudio — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:10:45 +0000

I love the way that when the MacBook air was launched, all the usual pundits lined up to say that it was a fundamentally flawed concept and was doomed to failure. Now manufacturers are desperate to copy this ‘flawed concept’.

Some people never learn from history. Every time that Apple does something which is different to the herd, we see the same people making identical criticisms, but Apple goes on to sell these ‘flawed concepts’ in ever increasing numbers.

By: FT

FT — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:09:54 +0000

Upon considering my needs – mostly content creation for work, while the content consumption for fun – I am getting a MacBook Air, rather than an iPad. For portability tasks, my iPhone does great. Don’t want to cram my life with my gadgets, so I’m not getting an iPad. It may well be that once the market catches up with well designed MacBook Air equivalents, the tablet market might face more competition from the netbook side once again.

By: cococanuck

cococanuck — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:07:43 +0000

might as WELL

By: cococanuck

cococanuck — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:07:23 +0000

Intel might as del just build these things themselves. They’re doing everything but. Jeesh!

By: Vicmacs

Vicmacs — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:03:43 +0000

Hahahha thats pathetic, more iKillers Zombies!