Why Apple picked Intel

Steve Jobs sent a seismic shocker across the tech landscape in June when he announced Apple would phase out PowerPC chips and put Intel processors inside Macs starting in 2006. To some, the move seemed puzzling: Why would Jobs, the king of cool design, make a deal with half of the empire that conquered the world with cookie-cutter beige boxes? Jobs had an answer at the ready during his Worldwide Developers Conference keynote —a switch to Intel chips means better Mac hardware down the line. And analysts agree that the move ensures Apple’s ability to craft unique designs.



But one aspect of the “Why switch processor suppliers?” question hasn’t been answered. Intel isn’t the only X86 chipmaker in town. Why didn’t Jobs, ever the maverick, opt for the scrappy challenger, Advanced Micro Devices, instead of the old-money establishment, Intel?




The reason, industry analysts say, is that Jobs has a clear goal in mind: innovative designs. And such designs require the lowest-voltage chips, which IBM and Freescale were not going to make with the PowerPC chip core—and which AMD has not yet perfected.



“This is a practical, pragmatic Steve Jobs decision,” says Shane Rau, Program Manager, PC Semiconductors for market research firm IDC. Intel serves up the most complete line of low-power chips for mobile and small form factor computers, and a good-looking future roadmap for it. Also, Intel’s mammoth production capacity erases any supply worries.