“The PC industry is wasting little time getting in line behind Apple to use Intel’s spiffy new notebook chip,” Tom Krazit reports for CNET.
“CNET News.com has learned that Lenovo and Fujitsu are in the process of putting together systems based on the special Core 2 Duo chip that Apple is using in the MacBook Air,” Tom Krazit reports for CNET. “The new laptops should be out shortly, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans, and will give customers a chance to see what the rest of the PC industry can do with the power-thrifty chips.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, produce uglier, thicker, tiny-screened, teeny-keyboarded, plastic-bodied, OS-limited junk. With dual parallel ports.
Krazit continues, “Apple asked Intel to design the special Core 2 Duo chip last year as it was putting together the design that would become the MacBook Air. The chip fits into a package that’s significantly smaller than the garden-variety package Intel uses with its notebook chips, and it uses less power than the standard Core 2 Duo, allowing it to fit into the slim MacBook Air without melting the inside of the package or eating the battery.”
“While Apple got the scoop on that new chip–which, since the company asked Intel to build it, seems fair–Intel has other customers,” Krazit reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Spark” for the heads up.]
Apple should get a small royalty from Intel for prompting them to make a chip that others how “covet”. Ha, ha, I’m sure Steve Jobs won’t hold his breath waiting for it!
Laptop envy.
Very common problem.
Who didn’t see this coming?
“such a lovely laptop. if it weren’t for the virus, it would have retained all the data. really.”
just a little late day humor ….
It will be called:
Fujitsu Vapor
Intel is already working on Apple’s next micro CPU… Once all the PC laptops will be (finally) thin, Mac will be again far in front!
Whoever is writing the MacDaily News take on these stories needs medication.
Mmmmmmmmm medication
LOL at “dual parallel ports” comment. =) don’t forget the 9-pin RS-232 and a PS/2 keyboard connector!
if apple were to buy a company with all the money it had in reserve, they should buy intel. hey steve, do you stockholders a favor and buy intel.
No duh! Intel knew all along that once the chip became public knowledge, other manufacturers would be clamoring for it. This Intel/Apple partnership is working out very well indeed.
“With dual parallel ports.”
HA-HA!! It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
paul writes, “if apple were to buy a company with all the money it had in reserve, they should buy intel. hey steve, do you stockholders a favor and buy intel.”
I beg to differ. In business, one strives to “stick to one’s knitting”, what one does best. Apple knows what it wants and what it needs. That doesn’t mean it knows how to do it all. Better to drive its suppliers and technology partners to do what THEY do best. Apple, just keep doing what you’re doing… It seems to be working.
They may want the chip, but what kind of deal do Intel and Apple have on the thing? Perhaps a lock on a certain amount of production, either in chip count or availability times?
Dear MDN,
Dude, seriously, a little therapy might not be such a bad idea. Everyone knows that Apple makes great products. Climb down off that irrational fan boy pedastal, stop breathing the fumes up there, and settle down into the real life issues of interoperability.
Apple isn’t the only company that makes good information technology products and you don’t want them to be. You want others to create great products otherwise what will Apple have to compare against? More importantly what will we have to compare against?
COMPETITION breeds excellence, and for a long time now, the only thing that truly separates Apple portables from the rest is OS X. Other than that, there are many notebooks that are much sexier than the admittedly long in the tooth MacBook Pro line.
Design wise, I’m tired of the same basic laptop with tiny tech increments such as slightly brighter screens, slightly faster processors, and multi-touch.
I wonder if Apple had any engineers ‘helping’ Intel in the design? If so does Apple have any patent or IP rights? It would follow then that the others would be S-O-O-L and would have to figure out something else.
Macworld Keynote 2008 @ 1hr 4min. All these manufactures should watch this and thank Steve Jobs for showing them the way. I just can’t understand how these suckers can’t innovate but just copy. I guess it’s a lack of leadership..
@MacDailyNews Take
Some people want laptops that are smaller. Footprint is more important than thickness in portability. Apple needs a
ten inch laptop. My fujitsu lifebook P1620 is just a little bigger than the Asus EEEpc, but it has a core2duo porcessor. Os limited? I’m dual booting OS X (osx86) and Ubuntu right now.
“if apple were to buy a company with all the money it had in reserve, they should buy intel. hey steve, do you stockholders a favor and buy intel.”
With the recent downturn in Apple stock price Intel is now a larger company that Apple, which makes it a little hard for Apple to buy it.
Anyway it’s good to see Intel offering better service than IBM, maybe all the Intel bashing of the 90s was a bit out of line
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Apple would have to pay Intel a lot of money for exclusive rights to a custom chip. This way they get what they want, ahead of the curve and then have others buy the chip too and lower the price over time.
Intel are innovating well at the moment. Those complaining of product delays are forgetting the months of waiting for G4 processors or for the first metal powerbooks. Apple get what they want form Intel and in the volume they need when they need it. This relationship is nothing short of miraculous and has allowed Apple to maintain supply with demand for the first time in a decade. It’s one of the reason Apple has managed to grow its Mac business so well.
apple helped design the g series of chips with ibm and motorola, so they have the ability and knowledge to do so again. the key here is that intel wants to design chips that apple can use, they want a computer manufacturer who is willing to push the envelope. this is just the beginning.
A thin laptop is more than just the CPU chip… there are lots of other chips and hardware surrounding it, not to forget about case design, flex issues, heat and radio interference, and many other potential snags.
No way those others can just come waltzing in and buy the small Intel CPU and release their own AirBook in a few months. This is just FUD to capitalize on Apple’s press and make people think that others will have competitive products. No one will have anything that competes with the Air for at least a year.
“Yeah, produce uglier, thicker, tiny-screened, teeny-keyboarded, plastic-bodied, OS-limited junk. With dual parallel ports.”
That weigh just over 2 pounds and have a DVD drive and a full compliment of the ports you need in the real world without having to carry a sack full of external drives, usb hubs, ethernet adapters and display connectors. The Air starts to look a lot less elegant when you’re dragging it around the room with all that stuff hanging off it.
“No way those others can just come waltzing in and buy the small Intel CPU and release their own AirBook in a few months”
The others have been producing sub 3 pound notebooks for years. They already have the technologies nailed with existing chips and already squeeze much more in for the same size, weight and power consumption. It’s Apple who is playing catch up in this market.
“I wonder if Apple had any engineers ‘helping’ Intel in the design?”
Yes Word is Apple sent engineers along to a meeting where Intel said, “here’s a new chip we’re going to introduce to all PC vendors, do you think you can use some?”.
Apple engineers reportedly said “Yes.”
That was the limit of any “Design Input”.