According to Bloomberg, Apple is planning to make its own processors for the new iMacs. Apple is looking to start as early as 2020. The company which has been using Intel processors for a long time now seems to move on from Intel.
The initiative Kalamata is reportedly in its early stages. But it can contribute to a larger strategy to make all Apple’s devices to run on processors manufactured and designed by Apple itself. This will not only help Apple devices run more seamlessly with each other but will also give complete control to the company over hardware and software optimization.
The project seems to be a multi-step transition. With Apple controlling both hardware and software customers can expect a more streamlined experience across the Apple ecosystem.
As Apple shifts to make its own processors, Intel might face a lot of problems. After the news started circulating, Intel share dropped as much as 9.2 percent, the biggest intraday drop in more than two years. Intel has been a leading part of Apple’s growth making computers. Apple contributes to around 5 percent of the Intel’s total revenue which might not sound much but will certainly affect Intel in a lot of ways.
On the other hand, this could be a defining move for Apple. Currently all Apple products namely iPhone, iPad, Apple watches and Apple TV use processors designed by Apple. If Apple uses its own processors in iMacs than its dependency on Intel will be gone. This will help Apple to design the cycle of a product instead of relying on Intel’s roadmap.
As Apple’s dependency shifts from Intel, the Company could more seamlessly support its products. More importantly, the production process will be faster. Though Apple is going to shift to its own processors gradually as completely moving to its own processors requires time and Apple is working towards this change.
“We think that Apple is looking at ways to further integrate their hardware and software platforms. They have clearly made some moves in this space, trying to integrate iOS and macOS” said Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross Research. “It makes sense that they’re going in this direction. If you look at incremental R&D spend, it’s gone into ways to try to vertically integrate their components so they can add more functionality for competitive differentiation.”
