SlashGear’s Chris Burns says it was tipped last week by Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard that Apple is currently actively working on an ARM-based laptop. In a research note Mr. Richard suggested that because Apple is almost certainly working on a laptop which uses an in-house designed chip, Intel’s stake in the company appears to be at risk, and that while this sort of specualtion would not stand up to judgement on its own, it reiterates at least one previous report from former Apple intern turned CoreOS engineer Tristan Schaap who says exactly the same thing – ARM and Apple will be partnering up soon.
Burns observes that with the merging of Apple’s two operating systems coming ever closer to reality with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion coming this summer, an ARM-based laptop becomes more plausible.
CNET’s Brooke Crothers riffs on whether Apple will build a MacBook Air that uses the iPad’s A-Series ARM CPUs citing the same research note last week by Piper Jaffray analyst Gus Richard who says “We have numerous datapoints that Apple’s processor design group is working on an ARM-based product for its notebook line. Whether or not it goes into production remains to be seen, but it is the highest probability risk to Intel from the ARM camp in the PC market.”
Crothers notes that ARM chips are more power-efficient than the Intel chips used in Apple’s MacBook Air line but don’t offer the level of performance that Intel’s silicon does, and that Apple CEO Tim Cook told a Citigroup analyst last week that Apple would be satisfied with expanding the iPad line to meet the need for a notebook-like product.
