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Ask HN: Is Apple now a chip company?

by galogon on 8/10/22, 2:13 PM with 8 comments

Apple does not make laptops with unique designs anymore. They recently redesigned the MacBook Air and Pro's and they went with a utilitarian and conservative look. They did not push any boundaries.

They don't make the most bleeding edge phones anymore (Samsung is pushing the envelope with foldables).

They don't make the best looking wireless earbuds.

They don't make the best looking smartwatches.

They don't make the best looking tablets.

On the software front, Google has caught up on Android's UI and has the same polish as iOS. Apple is no longer the software design leader.

The only area that Apple is truly ahead is in chip design. Does that mean Apple is now a chip company first and design second? Also, does that mean Apple no longer attracts the very best designers and instead attracts the best chip designers?

  • by dagmx on 8/10/22, 2:28 PM

    This is a fragile premise at best because they’re based on your subjective opinions of style and then comparing them to a completely unrelated area of hardware characteristics.

    Your argument would be better if you stayed within the same sort of dimensionality. Hardware vs hardware.

    Has Apple hardware declined in your opinion outside of the chips? Their screens, their speakers, their manufacturing , their fit and finish?

  • by waynecochran on 8/10/22, 2:29 PM

    Anyone who works w both Android and iOS development knows that Android has nowhere near the polish of iOS. Especially in their tool sets.

  • by ActorNightly on 8/10/22, 7:35 PM

    Apple is not really ahead in chip design. They took mobile phone chips and upscaled them into laptop form.

    And the reason they can do that is because they have a tight lock on everything else. Making a generic M1 compatible chip for widespread adoptions is hard. Making it fit into a specific piece of hardware and work with specific software is many orders of magnitude easier.

  • by logicalmonster on 8/10/22, 2:32 PM

    As far as I remember, Steve Jobs used to quote this particular Alan Kay quote often and was guided by it.

    > People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.

    If you think that Apple is still guided by this mentality, then their purpose is still focused on making the best software they can.

  • by senttoschool on 8/10/22, 3:49 PM

    I think they focus on making chips that solve customer problems.

  • by bdcravens on 8/10/22, 3:29 PM

    Apple's advantage has never been design; it is integration.