“Apple is a silicon powerhouse,” Ashraf Eassa reports for Seeking Alpha. “In addition to being one of the finest software/OS development houses on the planet today, it is also a vendor of some of the finest low power, high performance mobile CPUs/SoCs today.”
“Judging from recent job postings, Apple is also hell-bent on developing its own graphics processors (Apple’s A-series GPUs have been licensed from Imagination Tech,” Eassa reports. “However, the company’s next big, bold move seems to have been telegraphed in a set of job postings on its websites.”
“A look at Apple’s jobs page shows that the company is hiring RF engineers in droves,” Eassa reports. “While most of the listings don’t specify exactly what type of wireless technologies Apple is looking to develop, it is very likely that with the alleged acquisition of Texas Instruments’ former wireless connectivity business, coupled with this seemingly very aggressive hiring in RF, it is looking to do its own Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity products… Does the Apple A8 or A9 end up with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS?”
Read more in the full article here.
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Apple hiring ‘dozens’ of former Texas Instruments engineers in Israel – December 3, 2012
Or maybe RF connectivity to the net that bypasses the dumb pipes?
That would be sweet. Apple as the essential services provider.
Not going to happen. Apple needs carriers to push phones.
Apple doesn’t need anyone.
Anyone?! Not even ‘customers’???
forgot about them.
You’re funny.
-jcr
Not if Apple becomes a phone carrier itself.
Don’t they have the cash to buy all the carriers in the US? Thought I read something like that a while ago..
My dream scenario is that Apple buys both Sprint and Disney. Sprint would include Clear (Clearwire), the wireless ISP, along with Sprint’s cell network. Disney would give Apple ABC, ESPN, and Pixar, as well as all the Disney movie studio catalogs, TV network and shows, theme parks, etc.
Those two acquisitions would give Disney a delivery system for Apple TV and the content to deliver via Apple TV and iTunes. Imagine what would happen to Comcast and satellite TV subscriptions if you could suddenly subscribe to the whole season for your favorite NFL team for $99.95. A lot of people are held hostage to Comcast simply because they don’t want to give up ESPN.
We had a lot of reports, earlier this year, that talked about Cook’s efforts to draw business away from the carrier shops, and drive phone buyers to the Apple Stores. Apple needs the carriers for the networks, not the shops (where they push Android phones over Apple’s stuff anyway).
how would that work?
Like Clear (Clearwire) only done properly by Apple.
Resulting in no need to work with the nimrods over at Qualcomm?
Didn’t know they utilised mythological Kings over at Qualcomm, that’s so cool. What do they do?
Why is Apple so preoccupied with designing hardware when their rivals are all going the software services route? Apple is getting killed by declining profit margins. Software services would eliminate some of that constant Wall Street pressure of profit margins. Server farms and cloud support for other companies certainly makes more sense. Those A-series processor quantities are going to be limited to what Apple can sell of its own devices.
Is Apple really going to try to take on NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm and Intel? If that’s the case, it would mean Apple would need to sell processors to other companies to make any real money. To me, it really seems as though Apple is taking the most difficult path. The whole idea seems insane.
Because Apple sells systems.
View at Medium.com
Two reasons…..
1) Because Apple has been, is, and will continue to be a hardware company.
2) Because Apple is a hardware and a software company all integrated together.
I believe you are referring mostly to the electronics or the silicon things, right?
If that’s the case then answer is because what’s available on the market is not as efficient or as good as Apple needed/needs it to be for their mobile products (their mobile strategy I should say); just look at the IPhone 5s or the iPad line up, specially looking at it over time.
Apple won’t compete with NVIDIA or AMD if they will be using their own chips in their own hardware that already makes them tons of money. Simple logic.
How is that Apple is getting killed by declining profit margins? How is quarterly net profit of $7.5 billion getting killed? Apple made an informed decision to reduce profit margins when it introduced the iPad mini to avoid ceding that space to Android. As a result, it sold more tablets than it otherwise would have, likely by a large margin. Although gross margin per cent declined, gross margin absolute dollars are much larger. Absent the constraints in 5S supply, Apple would have likely sold 2 million more iPhones in recent Q. If you listened to the CC, about .5% reduction in the projected GM was the result of the increase in deferred revenue resulting from giving OS and productivity apps away rather than selling. This hit may in fact increase gross margin dollars as it makes Apple products more competitive in the market place. Some cheap *ss companies like mine are still on XP because they don’t want to pay for upgrades. Too 10 years to upgrade the MS office.
And how about Amazon Gross Margins. Killers, eh.
Apple has historically been in the 37% to 38% margin range. It was only last year that was an aberration at 40%. Apple has now returned to historical levels. It’s no big deal.
I thought their next move was to build a space ship powered by their new Flx Cp Chip.
I don’t think anyone has ANY clue as to what Apple’s next move might be. Except, of course, Apple itself. It’s all speculation, which I have to agree is a lot of fun…
Well, it is rather predictable that Apple will foolishly prioritize thinness over user-customization or serviceability, growing worse with each product generation.
It is entirely predictable what chipsets Apple will use in its Macs — though sadly, Apple seems no longer the first out of the gate with the latest Intel chips.
It is entirely predictable that Apple — especially under Cook — will follow standards in more and more areas rather than forging entirely new ones. Bluetooth, USB, 802.11, you name it. Nothing earth shattering there, just the same pace of innovation as any other competitor.
Finally, it is completely predictable that Cook will continue to drive most Apple resources into iOS because that is where Apple retains a large worldwide market share in units and profits. However, the downside of this is that Cook’s also displayed nothing but second-class efforts on the Mac front:
1) bobbled 2012 iMac releases, with user-unfriendly construction
2) aside from poorly-supported Retina displays, Mac laptops offer only modest predictable incremental upgrades
3) Mac mini continues to be a step behind current component spec for desktop machines — probably because Apple thinks its a portable device
4) Apple refuses to offer a medium-size tower
5) the upcoming 2013 Mac Pro now suddenly prioritizes fashion over function
6) iWork 2013, after 5 years to do something really great, is a step backward on so many fronts
7) Mac pro applications continue to be mixed bags
8) iTunes continues to become more bloated, with poor fashion changes rather than serious performance improvements and increased user control
9) Mavericks moves OS X a step beyond Snow Leopard, which is significant only because Lion and Mtn Lion were huge downgrades.
… and so forth. The Mac platform may be the best, but under Cook, it has predictably suffered. So much for my faith in the operations guy. Put an engineer in charge, please.