The Bells are ringing for Intel
How Apple’s M1 affects the chip giant
Earlier this year, Apple introduced its ARM-powered computers to the world. It caused quite a stir as the numbers posted by Apple(though initially ambiguous) far exceeded expectations.
A giant leap like it is not observed in an industry which glorifies small incremental gains. While this may come as a surprise to many, it has been brewing for a long time.
For the first time since its inception, Intel would likely trail in a game it has ruled for decades. Having said that, Intel still has the largest profit margin of all chipmakers in the industry though increasingly shrinking.
Intel vs Apple the chipmaker
It all began in 2009 when Apple introduced the first-ever iPad powered by their ARM-based A4 processor. Apple has been iterating over its processors for speed and efficiency ever since.
But over time, Apple seems to have gotten the better of Intel. The figure below from AnandTech clearly shows Apple chips have been comparatively making more progress than Intel’s and have successfully overtaken them. The figure shows single-core performance of Apple and its Intel competitor over the years.
More Problems for Intel
In the last 5 years, Intel has just managed to increase their single-thread performance by 28% whereas Apple has managed to improve by 198% or almost 3x the performance of the Apple A9 of late 2015.
While Apple may still produce Intel-based macs in the coming years, considering the stark performance difference, the choice may be a dead rubber for most consumers.
Intel has also been facing production issues lately which have naturally worked in favour of its competitors. It is also no longer America’s most valuable chip maker; Nvidia is.
Its not that Intel is increasingly losing its market share, its just that its competitors are growing faster.
Intel still has it
Intel is known for keeping its chips expensive than its competitors. As per this Financial Times article, Intel’s net worth may be slowing in comparison but its profit is still greater than others combined.
Migration to ARM from Intel | The Innovation (medium.com)
As I’ve mentioned in the post above, it would be difficult for Microsoft to pull off what Apple has done with ARM processors which is where the opportunity for Intel lies. Intel has to consistently beat ARM processors in the pc-market to maintain its lead in the space.
Intel recently released its 11th generation processors which are twice as faster than the last. Now, is this because of what’s been going on in with Apple and Microsoft? If so, then it confirms that Intel in a way concedes that they have been slow over the years.
While it is still not easy to predict the route the industry takes in its due course, In the future, it would be increasingly confusing for customers to choose a device with Intel and Arm based computers co-existing alongside.
