June 1st, 2009
Forbes: No new iPhone chip next week
Although Apple is widely believed to announce a third-generation iPhone handset at WWDC with up to 32GB RAM and a 3.2MP camera with video recording capabilities, Forbes thinks that it’s too soon to see the fruits of last year’s acquisition of chipmaker P.A. Semi in the new iPhone.
Instead, mobile industry analysts say Apple will most likely turn to a faster version of the application processor it now buys from Samsung if it opts for a speedier processor for the iPhone.
Apple’s definitely pursuing its mobile chip initiative though, last month it advertised job openings for NEON extended engineers, the instruction set used by next-generation ARM processors.
A faster chip will be a nice upgrade for the 35,000+ applications that are currently available in the App Store, but it won’t be the new in-house chip some were expecting from the P.A. Semi team. At least not yet anyway.
The iPhone’s chief competition is shaping to be the Palm Pre and its Texas Instrument’s OMAP3430 mobile processor, which goes on sale June 6 — two days before the WWDC keynote address.
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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