“On Thursday, Apple announced a number of executive shifts, including naming Jeff William as the new COO,” Aaron Tilley reports for Forbes. “Apple also announced that Johny Srouji is joining the executive team as senior vice president for hardware. Srouji, who’s best known for introducing Apple’s custom A-series chips for iPhones and iPads as well as the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, has a long history of chip engineering at Intel and IBM before joining Apple in 2008.”
“By bringing on Srouji as an executive, Apple will likely continue deeper down that path of vertical integration on all the components that go into making Apple products competitive, said chip analyst Patrick Moorhead,” Tilley reports. “‘Apple is going to be engaged with creating more of its own intellectual property,’ Moorhead said. ‘It wants to put more of its own IP into its products. IP has a seat at the table, where it had typically been fronted by product groups before. The A9 people’s seat at the table used to be through the iPhone and iPad. With Srouji, they now have a seat at the table. They get more time with Jony Ive and Tim Cook.'”
Apple “has emerged as one of the most important chip makers in the world — even though it only develops silicon for its own devices. Apple has pushed much of the chip industry forward. In 2013, for example, Apple’s A7 chip that came in the iPhone 5s was the first 64-bit processor in a smartphone, and that hit chip companies like Qualcomm hard. The San Diego chip maker had to scramble to come out with its own 64-bit product, leading to the disastrous Snapdragon 810 launch,” Tilley reports. “Now, with the A9x processor found in the recent iPad Pro, Apple has made another jump. The processor has been referred to as a ‘desktop-class’ chip. For years, there have been rumors that Apple is interested in cutting out Intel of its Mac computers. It appears Apple is closer than ever to achieving that dream with its recent advancements in processor technology.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The more vertical integration, the better! So-called competitors will only fall further and further behind.
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