Longtime Apple critic – Dan Lyons is reporting that he has been informed by a Qualcomm insider that Apple’s 64-Bit Chip has hit the company in the gut.
“The 64-bit Apple chip hit us in the gut,” says the Qualcomm employee. “Not just us, but everyone, really. We were slack-jawed, and stunned, and unprepared. It’s not that big a performance difference right now, since most current software won’t benefit. But in Spinal Tap terms it’s like, 32 more, and now everyone wants it.”
This is a remarkable turn around from the first comment made by a Qualcomm employee. Immediately after the release of the iPhone 5s with its 64 Bit A7 chip, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher suggested in an interview that Apple’s 64-bit architecture in their A7 Chip was a marketing gimmick. This statement was later retracted.
According to the report, the entire industry thought 64-bit processor on a mobile device was still a long way off.
“The roadmap for 64-bit was nowhere close to Apple’s, since no one thought it was that essential,” the Qualcomm insider told Lyons. “The evolution was going to be steady. Sure, it’s neat, it’s the future, but it’s not really essential for conditions now.”
“Apple kicked everybody in the balls with this. It’s being downplayed, but it set off panic in the industry,” the Qualcomm insider said.
In my humble opinion, Apple’s move to 64-bit processor is for the rumored full-fledge iTV. The PS4 and Xbox One need more than 8 GB of RAM which the iTV will need to compete with these next-generation machines.
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