Intel Hints of Atom - iPhone/iPod Touch Connection at IDF 2008
There's usually very little said about Apple during Intel's Developer Forum (IDF). Apple's MacBook Air is about the only product that ever gets a worthy mention. Not that Intel wouldn't like to have Apple on Stage debuting a cool new iPhone – because clearly they would love that. So the next best thing, apparently, is to make that specific suggestion loud and clear without ever saying a word. A point in case would be the keynote delivered by Anand Chandrasekher, Sr. VP, Ultra Mobility Group. His keynote was appropriately titled "Mobile Internet Devices: The Innovative Platform." A video kicked off his keynote and you'll quickly note below in the video collage, that the context of Intel's visuals revolve around the theme of the Atom processor in the Atomic Era. Yet you'll find a specific graphic below that might just raise your inquisitive eyebrow. It's the one that clearly illustrates Apple's iPhone (center left). There's also in a secondary graphic presented (bottom left) where you'll see the iPhone positioned at the top-center of a sun-like globe. Intel was definitely sending us clue that there's some kind of connection between a future iteration of the iPhone and the Intel architecture. Then again, it could have been yet another fantasy dreamed up by Intel's marketing team. The problem is that it blurs the line. Either Intel knows that Apple's iPhone with Intel-Inside is in the works or they're stepping over the legal line here trying to give their architecture a false endorsement. Only time will tell which it is.
Intel's Atomic Era
For the record, here's what the Intel video message entailed: "Technology: The final frontier. These are the innovations that define our times. Each on a mission to change our world…improve our lives…and advance civilization. And now at long last they are coming together…allowing the internet to boldly go where it has never gone before: In your pocket.
Home Automation
There may have been yet another interesting hint of Intel working with Apple on the Home Automation front. Intel's Sr. VP Digital Enterprise Group, Patrick Gelsinger, reviewed an in-home home automation system screen, which would typically appear near a typical home entry area. The home automation system would incorporate facial recognition, real-time energy-use monitoring and so forth. Gelsinger also showed that the same information displayed on the built-in home system would also display on a handheld wireless device. The thing is that he never really pointed to the mobile device. The camera covering the keynote never got any closer to view the handheld device any better. But the design has the very same interface characteristics of an iPhone or iPod touch and the siding is in that chrome like finish.
The noted device was only presented in the keynote video itself and wasn't included in Intel's official keynote slides. Apple's roadmap isn't expected to adopt Intel's Atom processor and so this is an oddity to note well. Was Intel banking on Apple adopting Atom or is there a twist to this story that isn't yet known? Stay tuned.
Where Will On-the-Go - Go?
That of course was the title and theme of Intel's IDF Mobility Keynote by Perlmutter - but it was also one of the segments that he ended his keynote with as well. Perlmutter ran a video covering comments from industry executives of British Telecom, E-Ink (the ones behind Amazon's Kindle) and CTIA who envisions a 4G landslide of applications on the horizon. But the one that stood out the most for me was the clip with commentary from Kenneth Kokinakis, CEO of Myvu. You could see him in the graphic below with an iMac in the background (Sure, like that was just an accident – Ha!).
Mr. Kokinakis stated that "We believe that on-the-go-computing is headed toward mobility in almost every phase. We see video, gaming and ultra mobile PC style computing possible and we see ourselves leading the way with large screen experience from small screen devices. What happens with Myvu, where it goes – is that it gives you a large screen experience in a very small envelope you could carry with you and wear simply on your head and take it with you anywhere you go and interface to almost any mobile platform. People invariably react with a wow. They're shocked at the experience they could get from the media viewers." We could only hope that Apple's personal media player delivers that same punch whenever it arrives. And who knows, perhaps Apple will even take a run at acquiring Myvu who focuses so much of their energy delivering products for the iPod. Time will tell.
Intel and Apple's iPhone
There were a few interesting topics of interest presented at this summer's IDF that could either benefit Apple in the future or that could, at the very least, give us a vision of what other areas of technology could be on Apple's radar screen. That will be a topic of discussion for another report. For now, it must be said that there were two very interesting hints concerning Intel working with Apple. The most controversial one however, remains Intel's insistence that the iPhone will use Intel's architecture at some mystery point in time.
Is Intel dreaming or will conventional thinking about Apple not using the Intel architecture fly out the window? What say you?
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