Published
9 months agoon
There is something reassuring about Apple holding its annual developers conference this week, even if it will be held online only. The conference is 95% nerdfest—legit technical sessions on how Apple’s hardware and software work—with a smidge of major or not-so-major product announcements sprinkled in. The main events are like fish food heaped into the aquarium for the many species that feed off the Apple ecosystem. The balance constitutes red meat for the public and its enabler, the news media.
As Aaron has summarized, one of the expected news events at WWDC is Apple’s intention to dump Intel, the supplier for 15 years of semiconductors for its Macintosh computers. This is tremendously important for the tech world and an almost non-event for consumers. It was a similarly big deal a decade and a half ago, when Apple cut loose an IBM-Motorola consortium in favor of Intel. Then, however, the iPhone didn’t exist, and Macs were Apple’s main business. Today, laptops and desktops comprise just under 10% of Apple sales. What’s under the hood is a bit of snooze if you’re not in the chip business.
That said, computers are still a product line for Apple. Last year it experienced modest growth, compared with a 14% decline in iPhone sales. Apple’s plan to make computer chips of its own design will help it strengthen a slow-growth, cash-cow product.
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Two funny descriptions of Big Tech from my weekend reading:
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Adam Lashinsky
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.