Replies to post #116816 on Intel Corp (INTC)

[ibc]

Are you saying that Apple should build a netbook? Yeah, I can see that being a "game changer".

Netbooks were crippled at the platform level to protect the non-Atom CPUs - ridiculously low-res screens, slow mechanical disks, the inability to play HD video.

If Apple were to take this line of attack - I'm sure it wouldn't be anything like a crippled netbook. How much more platform value could you put into a fixed BOM without a $200 Intel CPU - not to mention all of the associated cost of cooling/fans? As one example, you might be able to afford to put in a 2048x1536 screen instead of the crappy 1366x768 screens found in many ultrabooks.

It's not just Apple that could do this. Samsung could go here as well. Perhaps even Google. Why pay for CPU performance you aren't going to use when you could invest those dollars in higher value features?

[fastpathguru]

And you conveniently seem to forget that Apple is losing share to vendors in the Android ecosystem who don't have the same vertical stack as Apple.

The fundamental trend is, "Expensive, Proprietary IP -> Inexpensive, DIY IP."

(Not "Horizontal -> Vertical.")

I.e.:

UNIX/Windows/IOS -> Linux/Android
RISC/IA64 -> x86 -> ARM

Any increase in vertical integration is merely a natural consequence of the trend towards inexpensive, DIY IP.

fpg