Apple To Buy ARM?
Apple has plenty of cash hidden under Steve Jobs' mattress; a whopping $41.7 billion to be exact. Obvious corollary: what will they do with it?
Well, rumor has it they might buy ARM, the chip maker behind our dear iDevices (as well as the Droid and such). It's not quite clear what supports this rumor, however as TUAW points out today, it would make a lot of sense for Apple. Here is Apple COO Tim Cook last January:
We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make
And they can afford it, as apparently ARM would cost them just $8 billion; peanuts.
What does it mean? Well, if Apple really goes for it, they'll have an amazing advantage over the rest of the market.
First of all, in-house development is really Apple's thing and they'll be able to develop the very best chips that suit their needs. Secondly, they could cut off all the other manufacturers (like HTC or Motorola) from their ARM chip supply.
So yeah, it's a big big deal.
[via TUAW]
