Apple To Sell Macs With In-house Processors From 2021 – Report

Bad news for Intel after a report stated that Apple will next year utilise its own in-house processors currently found in its iPhone and iPad devices, in its Mac computers.

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple is developing three Mac processors based on the A14 processor, suggesting it will transition more of its Mac lineup away from current supplier Intel. Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter as its source.

This report, if true, will be more bad news for Intel and its relationship with Apple, which acquired Intel’s smartphone modem business, in a deal valued at $1bn (£804m), in July last year.

Apple CPUs

The acquisition of Intel’s modem business gave Apple the necessary chips for its iPhone devices to connect to wireless networks, an area Apple has been keen to move into, despite it surprising many in April 2019 when it kissed and made up with Qualcomm, and halted all legal action between the two.

That settlement saw Apple agreeing to make an undisclosed payment to Qualcomm, and to use Qualcomm’s modem chips going forward.

But it seems that some within the iPad’s maker management team were determined to reduce Apple’s dependence on Qualcomm’s modems as soon as possible, and now also Intel CPUs.

Intel had always been going to offload its modem division, ever since the chip giant announced in April 2019 “its intention to exit the 5G smartphone modem business” altogether, hours after Apple and Qualcomm had made their settlement announcement.

And now Intel is starring down the barrel again, but this time for its processors being used in Apple computers.

Apple, it should be remembered, have used Intel’s processors in its Mac devices ever since 2006, when it stopped using chips supplied by IBM.

And there is little doubt that over the past couple of years, Apple has been bolstering its in-house engineering team.

It hired a number of Intel executives, including Stefan Wolff, who previously managed Intel’s German modem team, and Umashankar Thyagarajan, who used to the the head of Intel’s now-defunct modem biz.

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