A long time ago, in what seems like a galaxy far, far away, Apple and Google were the Brad and Jennifer of the tech world. Google had the cloud, Apple had the clients, and both companies were such industry darlings that fantasizing about world-changing Apple/Google team-ups was a popular pundit pasttime. The love extended all the way up to the top of Apple, with Google CEO Eric Schmidt taking the stage alongside Jobs at WWDC 2007 for the iPhone's unveiling. Jobs was supposedly so pleased with the prospects for Apple/Google collaboration that when he learned of Google's secret "Gphone" project (Android), he reportedly hit the roof.
Given how much engineering effort the company has focused on its iOS-based products—to the point where most of the CPUs in Mac hardware have fallen a full generation behind—it's hard to imagine that Jobs isn't feeling similarly betrayed by yet another Apple partner's full-court press into the smartphone market. I'm talking, of course, about Intel, which just hired former Apple and Palm VP Mike Bell to head up its smartphone efforts, and which is rumored to be contemplating a purchase of key baseband chipmaker Infineon. Intel is jumping into the smartphone market with both feet, and the company's goal isn't just to create a direct iPhone competitor—no, Intel wants to empower a whole ecosystem of iPhone competitors based on x86.
Is it a coincidence, then, that Apple doesn't appear the least bit inclined to bring its Mac line up-to-date with the latest 32nm parts from Intel? No, it isn't. But the story of the present and future of Apple's relationship with Intel is considerably more complicated than "Betrayed Apple Flees Intel for AMD."