“Jefferies & Co.’s Hyunwoo Doh today reiterates a Buy recommendation on shares of Samsung Electronics, and a ₩1,700,000 price target, writing that the company may is poised to pick up new contract chip manufacturing business from Apple as the latter moves its Mac line of computers to chips based on ARM Holdings technology, rather than Intel’s x86 processors,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.
Ray reports, “Citing ‘industry sources’ unidentified, Doh writes that Apple is going to move from x86 to the ARM instruction set architecture because of a few different benefits: ‘We believe Apple will apply ARM’s AP in its PCs, despite it having inferior performance versus Intel’s CPU, for the following reasons: 1) Low power consumption: The PC market is currently focused on increased battery life through low power consumption, rather than on high performance; 2) Cost reduction: ARM’s AP has a simple architecture and the unit price is much lower than the Intel PC CPU, as there are multiple market players; 3) Ecosystem integration: Apple’s iPhones and iPads currently use ARM-based APs; and 4) Manufacture of parts according to Apple’s schedule and designs: While PC manufacturers currently have no option but to accept Intel’s development schedule, ARM merely licenses its designs, which allows companies like Apple the freedom to customize its AP.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iOS devices and OS X Macs inevitably are going to grow closer over time, not just in hardware, but in software, too:
Think code convergence (more so than today) with UI modifications per device. A unified underlying codebase for Intel, Apple A-series, and, in Apple’s labs, likely other chips, too (just in case). This would allow for a single App Store for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users that features a mix of apps: Some that are touch-only, some that are Mac-only, and some that are universal (can run on both traditional notebooks and desktops as well as on multi-touch computers like iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and – pretty please, Apple – Apple TV). Don’t be surprised to see Apple A-series-powered Macs, either. — MacDailyNews Take, January 9, 2014
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MotivDev” for the heads up.]
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