Oh Intel has announced a suitable processor. If Apple is willing to through out graphics performance improvement as a criteria then could use an i5UM right now. If Apple is willing to wait till next spring when the i5UM Sandy Bridge versions come out then would not have to trade off graphics.
The superior edge that AMD has for next 8-12 months or so is that they have an offering where make a slight trade-off on high end Floating Point performance for approximately as good driving the built-in screen graphics performance which comes in at several fewer watts than the Intel solution.
If going to shrink the battery and have more problems getting rid of heat, it is a better fit solution than the Intel offerings now or later.
High integration isn't as important as integrating the right components. Intel is hobbled right now because didn't integrate a GPU that Apple will tolerate deployed by itself.
That is why the Nvidia + C2D combo is the only highly viable option versus Zacate if Apple doesn't give up on graphics performance. If is different integration choice but the components integrated are better.
The Zacate's 1.6 GHz is more so because it is pumps far more power into the graphics portion of the chip than the current intel CPU+GPU package solutions do.
Maybe. Apple could have asked fora 2.0Ghz Zacate that runs at 20-22W. That is still a better two chip solution than the C2D+320m solution in terms of wattage if AMD's I/O chip isn't a power hog.
If Apple gets a price break I doubt they will pass most of that along. Everyone who is in the mindset of Apple jumping on the AMD bus will mean lower Mac prices is extremely likely in for severe disappointment. Apple is likely to take any drop in CPU component prices to spend more on another component ( e.g., put in higher priced SSDs instead of HDDs or introduce a higher cost case , etc. ) .
Even with Intel CPUs Apple generally doesn't let the CPU's dictate more than 25% of the system price. Going with cheaper AMD chips would only impact less that 25% of the pricing. Nor is Apple going to take lower profit margins.
The $800 range is in the iPad zone. Apple isn't going to push one of their mobile Mac products into the same pricing zone as the iPad so that can cannibalize each other. They are going to add more value with some other feature/component to push the price back up over $950
So not going to happen. Dropping the price from $1499 to $1099 would be hailed as magical by Apple. Nothing in the iPad range is even on their radar.
. It seems reasonable that including a GSM SIM card reader would free up the USB port (from a USB modem) as well as streamline the whole mac mobile experience, but maybe it is just a memory SD card slot. 
