“Shares of Dialog Semiconductor declined by about 35% after a report in Nikkei Asian Review indicated that its largest customer, Apple , could start using its own power management chips beginning as early as next year. Dialog currently designs these chips for Apple’s iPhone. While there hasn’t been an announcement or any concrete evidence that Apple is shifting to its own power management chips, there is clearly a lot at stake for Dialog, given that Apple accounted for about 74% of its sales in 2016,” Great Speculations writes for Forbes. “Moreover, there has been a trend of Apple increasingly designing its own chips. A few months ago, UK-based semiconductor company Imagination Technologies was sold to a private equity firm after Apple said it would stop using the company’s mobile graphics chips.”
“The company’s in-house chip design team currently develops its A-series application processors, the bionic neural engine chip that handles facial, image and speech recognition as well as the wireless chips used in its audio products such as Airpods and Beats headphone,” G.S. writes. “Battery life remains an area where progress has been relatively stagnant for years. The power management chips on smartphones control charging, battery management, and the overall energy consumption of the device, and Apple could add value by integrating its proprietary hardware and software, which could allow phones to handle tasks more efficiently.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Vertical integration wins yet again.
With each passing year, and especially with iPhone X, it becomes increasingly clear – even to the Android settlers – that the competition has no chance of even remotely keeping up against Apple’s unmatched vertically integrated one-two punch of custom software and custom hardware. The Android to iPhone upgrade train just turned onto a long straightaway, engines stoked, primed to barrel away! — MacDailyNews, September 13, 2017
• I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do. — Steve Jobs, October 12, 2004
• In order to build the best products, you have to own the primary technologies. Steve felt that if Apple could do that — make great products and great tools for people — they in turn would do great things. He felt strongly that this would be his contribution to the world at large. We still very much believe that. That’s still the core of this company. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, March 18, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple ships more microprocessors than Intel – October 2, 2017
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple’s TrueDepth camera system puts iPhone X years ahead of Android competition – October 2, 2017
iPhone 8’s Apple A11 Bionic chip so destroys Android phones that Geekbench creator can’t even believe it – September 30, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip is by far the highest-performing system on the market; totally destroys Android phones – September 19, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip in iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X leaves Android phones choking in the dust – September 18, 2017
The inside story of Apple’s amazing A11 Bionic chip – September 18, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic obliterates top chips from Qualcomm, Samsung and Huawei – September 18, 2017
Apple accelerates mobile processor dominance with A11 Bionic; benchmarks faster than 13-inch MacBook Pro – September 15, 2017
Apple’s A11 Bionic chip in iPhone X and iPhone 8/Plus on par with 2017 MacBook Pro – September 14, 2017
When is Apple going to get to designing its own graphics processors? Those high-end Radeon GPUs are quite power-hungry and Apple is always so concerned with conserving energy. Apple needs to develop a line of powerful, yet low-energy consuming GPUs if something like that is even possible.
There are plenty of signs that Apple are working on graphics processors, most likely for iPhones, but once they have done that, they will doubtless want to roll them out to other product lines. Therefore the answer to your question is that they appear to have already started the design process some time ago.
However is quite a daunting challenge, not just from a technical point of view because there are also significant legal issues to overcome.
We know that Apple spent many years working quietly on it’s own silicon before the first ‘A’ series chips appeared and the results turned out to be truly astounding. We see that Apple would like to have it’s own silicon handling all of the major tasks in it’s products and they would obviously like that to happen as soon as possible, so it’s just a matter of time before Apple develops a graphics processor which meets it’s demanding requirements.
Apple, iPhone. That’s all that matters now.
King Whine… Do you have ANYTHING positive to say about ANYTHING?
Sure, Apple isn’t half as disappointing as I thought with Tim Cook at the helm. I had expect Apple to be crushed on the reefs of reality, instead Apple is only mired in the Sargasso Sea of Mediocrity.
So why are you still here?
– Are you just a petulantly negative little troll with psychiatric problems?
– Or are you suffering from delusions of grandeur… on a mission to correct all of the world’s mistaken thinking about Apple?
and
– Why not just go away and enjoy all the other outstanding electronics out there? It would be a lot more pleasant for you and for us.
Great companies overcome their failures, Apple perpetuates them. So, basically, I’m helping Apple by waking them up. Consider this my sacred duty. Understand now?
So #2 — delusional.
No, seriously, are you joking? Or do you think the biggest company in the world will become concerned about how they are doing and might realize they need your help to wake up?
Please also share some evidence with us about how wise you are in the ways of business. The easiest would be to let us know how big a company you run.
But actually, I think you should get on with your life. Somehow, I don’t think Apple is going to be looking to you for business advice.
Your counter argument is you don’t like what I post. That’s it? Nothing else?
I’m asking for some evidence on why the biggest company on the planet should listen to you — specifically what business or businesses you run or have run, and how big they are.
My guess is that you have never run even a tiny business… that you are the worst case of an armchair coach.
“Or are you suffering from delusions of grandeur… on a mission to correct all of the world’s mistaken thinking about Apple”
No, this one is applecynic.
I’m entitled to my opinion, snowflake. Curl up in a corner with a cup of hot cocoa and some coloring books. You’ll feel better.
Of course your entitled to your (vacuous, incessantly negative) opinion. It would just be REALLY nice if you didn’t feel compelled to inflict slight variations of your whining on these pages, over and over and over and over.
Apple’s AT LEAST 2 years ahead of it’s nearest competitor with the iPhone X. It’s Air Pods are still getting much better reviews than the competition. Even with the (admittedly) embarrassing software bugs of late MacOS is still a far better and more secure OS than Winblows, more useful and solid than pretty much anything out there and because of the efficiency of MacOS/Apple Software a lower specc’d machine will crush it’s ‘equal’ in Windows World. The display on any iMac from the last three years is STILL a thing to behold.
Oh, but Apple’s fallen to total shit since Jobs died.
Thanks for playing along at home….