You do know that iMac's aren't toys? You do know that the i7 iMac is, for most purposes, the fastest Mac you can buy. Don't you?
Yes I do it's not a toy. But it's not THAT quick either - a PC of the same price would kick its ass in bench mark scores any day of the week especially in graphics performance. And for the record before I get bashed for being a Mac hater, I'm typing this on a 6-core nMP( which also isn't that fast) and the £4k it cost me would have got a much faster PC, but I prefer OS X.
Anyway I digress, the reason I said Apple may use their own CPU is this, and it has nothing to do with what either of us think of the Mac, is this...
For many years now CPU performance has been beyond what most people need for the bit of browsing, email and Facebook they do each day. Any CPU from the past 8 years and certainly the past 5 years will do the job - PC sales have slumped globally because people prefer mobile devices and if they do use a computer most people don't need anything quicker, their old kit will do. I reckon Apple's own CPU's now offer a similar performance to those older Intel CPU's maybe even surpassing them and as Apple are all about the masses these days rather than the professional market or the high-end user, it would make absolute sense for them to have a single CPU type across laptops, desktops and mobile devices. The core of the OS for all devices can be identical (lowering development times and costs) and they would also control the entire machine end-to-end. It's all about Apple having complete control for the 'perfect user experience'.
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I would say this is very likely in the not-so-distant future. The iPad processor is no slouch by any means. Its just a matter of time and a little more development/refinement.
It would make complete sense for the majority of users who don't care what is inside so long as it works. It would be interesting to see whether Apple has any interest in the high-end users or professional market any longer. If not that's fine, I just wish they would get on with it.
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If they move to AMD processors then they may have just lost a loyal customer of almost two decades. Taking the effort to switch would be worth it at that point.
I hope these knuckleheads don't do it, in all honesty I don't think they will.
AMD wouldn't make that much difference as it's still x86 based, but A10 would be a completely different platform. And as the same with the 3.5mm jack Apple will assume the majority will 'get over it' and they can continue to see products.