Goldman reports, “ARM has long been rumored to be a takeover target for Apple after ARM-designed chips landed in the iPhone and iPad. The so-called ‘A4’ chips are manufactured by Apple, but ARM helped to draw up the blueprint for the processor and collects a licensing fee for each mobile device that Apple sells.”
Goldman reports, “Given Apple’s reliance on ARM’s technology, many analysts and investors have speculated that an outright purchase of the company would make sense for Apple to ward off the risk of ARM going to a competitor. But since almost all of Apple’s competitors are reliant on ARM as well — including deep-pocketed Google — a bidding war would likely ensue should Apple make an offer.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Google isn’t as deep-pocketed as Apple.
Doesn’t Apple already own a chip design firm?
Now were talking….
@MDN,
Yeah Google doesn’t have as much cash on their balace sheet, but they have huge credibility in the capial markets and could make this an expensive adventure for Apple.
Otherwise, ain’t gonna happen.
i guess other competitors better ARM themselves…
MadMac:
Isn’t that ” cutting your nose to spite your face”?
cos if apple gets it its gonna cost them
an arm and a leg
Google is at arm’ s length
i
need
coffee.
Huge mismatch with Google’s core business. Their foray into hardware is so slight, that buying a chip design firm would be dumb.
Makes perfect strategic sense for Apple.
@ Sarasota
Why you buy a company, included in the package is it’s patents.
unless apple wants to design the chip from scratch
shouldn’t apple make a high offer only to let google buy it for even more (admob scenario) only to abandon arm based designs in future ipod/iphone/ipad chips shortly therafter? forcing google to overpay for the next company would be smart in my book. we’re at war, folks
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Apple doesn’t manufacture chips, and ARM didn’t design the A4. Get your shit together Goldman.
Steven Jobs kept selling off ARM’s shares long after he knew he will be doing a tablet/cell phone/touch PDA, so those rumours are NONSENSICAL.
ARM terms of licensing allow exclusive innovation for Apple’s own engineers that will have nothing to do with ARM and Apple’s competitors.
There is no sense for Apple spending money which will bring no competitive advance. Competitors which use ARM will just move on to Intel, Via, et cetera and Apple will have no money from them at all.
Apple making ARM platform not used by anyone but Apple itself bears no clear competitor advantage.
This same article was out about six weeks ago. It’s the manipulators in action again.
acquire and extinguish… hmmm, I guess Apple did learn thing or two from M$. This is how you kill the competition. After all, how many phones are using ARM chips? That’s right.
@Proud Puppy,
Goldman is correct on this. The A4 processor is based on the ARM Cortex-8. The A4 is a SoC (system on a chip) that combines the processor with the PowerVR SGX 535 graphics processor and cache on a package that also contains two 128MB SDRAM modules.
While it’s fun to think of Apple buying ARM and causing a major disruption. It doesn’t make much sense for Apple to push everyone to Intel architecture…and then have Apple be competing with Intel…especially if Apple would be better off switching to Intel eventually anyway.
Apple’s better bet is to focus on the PoP SoC designing custom to it’s own devices, and even keeping open the door to Intel architecture as well.
I’d imagine, or at least hope that when Apple sold its stake in ARM, or when Apple signed new contracts with ARM, that it insured that ARM would continue to indefinitely supply Apple with its product line at fair market prices. This would result in Apple still getting future Cortex (or other reference designs) even in the event of another company taking over ARM.
If not, maybe the rumor is based on Apple investing enough of an interest in ARM to prevent being locked out in case someone else tried to take them over.
If the rumor Goldman refers to is correct, I’d imagine we’d hear about it sooner rather than later. This would be the type of thing where Apple (having learned from admob) would make a take it or leave it offer with a response required in a very short amount of time and an agreement not to shop around for a better offer.
What ID Apple knew it was going to switch to a different chip and was tempting Google to spend their cash and credit on ARM so as to spread them thin and into a business they know nothing about? Sort of an AdMob revenge. Obviously nonsense, but fun to think about anyway.
if not ID. Sorry.
If Apple bought ARM, Apple would have a significant dilemma on its hands: Apple wouldn’t want to share its A4 technology with anyone, but so many companies use ARM chips that Apple couldn’t cut off its competitors without facing immediate anti-trust claims from both the EU and U.S.
Plus, Apple doesn’t get into bidding wars. Apple buys small, off the radar companies that fit its business model and needs closely. Apple doesn’t need ARM, and doesn’t need the headaches of running it.
I repeat Apple doesn’t make chips, the assumption that the A4 is based on the ARM Cortex-8 may or may not be correct, it still an assumption and not a fact. The A4 design however is Apples. Samsung builds the A4 for Apple that is fact and has been confirmed by Samsung. Apple has designed its own ASIC’s since the early 90’s when I worked for them. Apple along with IBM, and Motorola were co-developers of the G3’s and G4’s with a lot of the design work being done by Apple. To many people confuse on line posting by so called tech writers as being fact when they are not. The only way you can tell if the A4 is an Apple version of the ARM Cortex-8 is to get a copy of the eng. manuals for design engineers and those are Apple company private, plus being able to understand those manuals requires an eng. degree. Posting assumptions on the internet doesn’t make those assumptions fact, I doubt that Goldman has access to the manuals or the ability to understand them.
Ain’t going to happen!
From now on bing and decide. http://www.bing.com
ARM is the clear enabler for longer battery life. Sure, get everyone over to Intel. So what. People are just going to buy iPhones and iPads and iPods.
Come on, we know it. Who the heck is going to move to another “smart”phone after using an iPhone, especially iPhone 4? Geeks on Android? Pleeze. For every geek on Android, there are 10 maybe 20 other consumers on iPhone.
@Proud Puppy,
I never said Apple makes chips, and neither did the author. You’ve taken one phrase out of context from the compound sentence Goldman uses.
His point, which is correct, is that the A4 has a processor based on ARM design. Apple pays ARM a licensing fee for this. You don’t need a private engineering manual to see this. Along with financial statements, there have also been analysis which involve testing the A4 via software routines.
The fact that the A4 is a PoP SoC based on ARM design and fabbed by Samsung is well established, and Goldman is correct in his use of these facts.
Take a look at:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple-A4-Teardown/2204/1