Opinion – News that Apple in fact will build its own iPhone processor sparked lots of controversy this week. Even within our own staff, we got caught up in heated discussions that did not exactly meet on common ground, but were carried out with same passion our readers obviously enjoy to discuss Apple news. So we decided to take our argument into the public and ask you to chime in and let us know who has the more reasonable view – our in-house Apple enthusiast Christian Zibreg or Managing Editor Wolfgang Gruener, who admits to admire Apple's achievements but be critical of the company's attitude.
Christian: Apple-designed SoCs make sense!
1. Cutting-edge gadgets with killer hardware. Today's iPhone uses off the shelf parts accessible to others (such as PowerVR MBX graphics cores also found in Nokia’s N95). A deal with ARM and Imagination will give it access to next-gen mobile graphics and processor core designs and exclusive rights to use them in a custom SoC. Exclusivity and broad access to the intellectual property enable Apple to design a SoC with one-of-a-kind features that other vendors will not be able to copy and keep them at a distance.
2. Cheaper gadgets. Apple may put custom processor and graphic cores, memory, sound, and interfacing components on a single die and outsource the manufacturing to Samsung. Cost-wise, this strategy beats buying separate components anytime, especially with high volume SoC manufacturing at an output of 100 million units annually. Design and volume impacts the bill of materials, which should also positively impact the price of the entire product.
3. Secret new products will remain secret. Apple's reliance on commoditized suppliers makes rumors boring. We knew pretty much everything there was about the latest iPods weeks before Jobs took the stage to unveil them. This will change. Apple's in-house team of P.A. Semi SoC engineers is working under the same roof with software and hardware guys - the curtain will remain pulled over mysterious new products until the last moment. The best Steve Jobs' "one more thing" moments are yet to come.
4. More battery life. Apple gadgets and long-lasting batteries don't go together. But power efficiency is P.A. Semi's field of expertise: Its 2 GHz dual-core processor consumed 4-5 times less power than other designs in its class at the time. Moreover, SoC designs tend to consume less power than the separate components it replaces. The combination of the two can turn Apple's Achilles’ heel into a key advantage. Expect future iPhones, iPods and Mac notebooks to have longer battery life than comparable competing products.
5. Apple to become the mobile gaming leader. Only Apple has exclusive rights to adapt Imagination's next-gen PowerVR SGX (graphics) and VXD (video) core designs in its own SoC. SGX delivers hardware-accelerated, shader-based 3D graphics and OpenGL ES 2.0 compatibility. VXD plays HD video on a mobile device or external display, with power consumption comparable to the existing audio playback chips. Future iPhone will have killer graphics, no question about it. In fact, future iPhone will render Nintendo DS and Sony PSP obsolete and turn Apple into a key player in mobile gaming.
Read on the next page: The iPhone won’t last 5 years with Apple’s own SoC!