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Comment by chipotle_coyote | Hacker News Reader

This article doesn't seem to have a lot to it other than "Apple's CPU efforts will motivate Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD to do better." And, you know, sure. I don't think we expected any of them to say "Welp, guess we better just close up shop now," did we.

(I suspect of those three, AMD's the one to watch. Not to discount Qualcomm and Intel completely, but they've definitely had a feeling of coasting for years.)

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Actually I think the companies that should be most worried are HP/Lenovo/Dell. They have been reliant on Microsoft and Intel for decades and have become complacent.

I never understood why HP in particular ceded so much to Microsoft.

what else they would rely on? Linux? there is not much competition what regards OS suppliers

there is not much competition what regards OS suppliers

That's exactly the problem. I called out HP because they did have their own operating system.

There's an interesting alternative world in which 10 or 15 years ago, HP and other vendors committed to making sure that Linux was and is a first-class OS on every single machine they sell. That means Linux works with the touchpad, sleep works, wifi works, and so on. Every single machine has a prompt that says "Windows pre-installed only" "Windows + Linux installed" or "Linux-only."

Today a lot of Lenovo machines work well with Linux but don't ship with those options. Dell has its XPS line. Everyone else is still predominantly Windows, especially on laptops.

I suspect the acquisition of Compaq made HP into a more boring PC/server maker.

"I never understood why HP in particular ceded so much to Microsoft."

Incompetence. Let's see - the CPUs they screwed up Alpha, StrongARM, and Itanium. Flushed PalmOS down the toilet too. Flipping morons.

QCOM doesn't care about performance. They are a licensing company that makes chips. Even if someone else was to make a faster chip they would still need to get a radio from qcom which would make it more expensive. With apple's margins they can afford to put qcom radio + their processor.

Not for much longer, Apple are making their own radios now. QC will probably still make some money from the necessary patent licenses.

There are rumors that Intel is about to replace its current CEO, Bob Swan.

If so, I'll be curious to see if that affects Intel's technical competitiveness.

"Beatings and CEO replacements will continue until morale improves"

Swan is a Jack Welch protege, so...

I don't know what that means. Mind explaining?

Welch school is notorious for overwork and fast firing. It's ironic to see coldtea portray Swan's potential firing as a hit to morale. Swan's a bean counter and a bozo, and Intel needs big changes at the top.

Typical: https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2017/08/intels_cfo...

To be fair, replacing a disliked CEO, even an abusive one, isn't at all guaranteed to make things better for the workers.

I think they’ll need to replace more in the top management than just the CEO.

rearranging deck chairs didn't help save the Titanic. that said I've seen turnaround CEOs do their thing before and this is a huge setup for someone if I ever saw it

They need an engineering focused and driven CEO and not a bean counter. They need someone that will say to wall street “Hey, I am going to focus on doing something new and revolutionary that will pay off in the long term, but might hurt profits for a few years. If you do not like it then sell the stock.” That CEO will need a board of the same mind to make it work. There is not a quick fix here, however there is a company of very talented people that if given the right leadership can drive new outcomes. Remember, Dr. Su at AMD did exactly this.

well they won't have to put too much effort into if Apple doesn't get more developers to write for the new chip; they weren't doing a bang up job even getting software for their Intel based systems. They are going to have to get all areas of applications which means an increased focus on bringing AAA game titles to M1

If your primary measure of success is "how many AAA game titles do you have," Apple has always been and probably always will be lacking. Fortunately for Apple (and for that matter, every company or organization that relies on Linux), this is not the only measure of success.

Apple doesn't give a damn about gaming. They may show off some game as a way of demonstrating Rosetta 2's performance, but what was the last AAA game that was released for macOS even close to it's Wintel release?

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