You might think, as Apple prepares to announce its next series of machines powered by the latest M1 series chips, that its divorce from Intel was well and truly over. Intel thinks differently. In an interview with Axios' chief technology correspondent Ina Fried shared by Marketwatch (opens in new tab), Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said he wants Tim Cook back.
“I never give up on the idea of anything not running on Intel chips,” Gelsinger said in response to a question about Macs and Apple Silicon. “Apple decided they could do a better chip themselves than we could. And, you know, they did a pretty good job. So what I have to do is create a better chip than they can.”
Apple’s transition to its own ARM-based chips was announced in June 2020, and so far seems to be a success, pumping out the power while keeping battery life high. Software, thanks to quick work by developers and Apple’s own Rosetta 2 translation layer, isn’t a problem. You can still buy an Intel Mac, for now, but as they’re out-performed by the M1 (opens in new tab)-equipped models, there's little reason to.
Gelsinger still can’t give up hope, however. “I would hope to win back this piece of their business, as well as many other pieces of business, over time,” he told Fried. “And in the meantime, I got to make sure that our products are better than theirs, that my ecosystem is more open and vibrant than theirs, and we create more compelling reasons for developers and users to land on Intel-based products. So, I'm going to fight hard to win Tim's business in this area.”
Will Alder Lake (opens in new tab)’s performance be enough to win back Apple’s business for intel? We’ll have to wait and see.