Apple may be working on an iOS-ARM notebook

Apple is serious about its interest in iOS and all the iOS-based products. It’s clear that the iPhone, iPad and the iPod Touch have been excellent product lines pulling in loads of revenue. The app store is doing incredibly well, too with loads of users purchasing apps on the devices. They’re taking it so seriously that the last major OS X update - Lion was made available for a price of just $29.99 (Rs.1,560). The upcoming Mountain Lion update also seems to be influenced by iOS apps. PCMag has a story that states that Apple may be working on an ARM-based notebook. This notebook isn’t going to be running OS X - It’ll be running iOS. This prediction was made by Gus Richard who’s an analyst at Piper Jaffray. 

The next iPad, the next MacBook?

If it’s true and the new notebooks are based on ARM, Intel would be the one to take the biggest hit. Intel has already been lagging behind ARM, when it comes to tablets and smartphones. Recent developments suggest Intel is targeting ARM, this year with new advanced and optimized platforms. A tablet-notebook has been attempted before and the best known example would be the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime, an Android tablet with a physical keyboard. Productivity and efficiency is hit mostly due to the lack of a physical keyboard and the touchscreen keyboard often takes up a lot of screen space. Hypothetically, an iPad with a physical keyboard as a cover could act as a notebook.

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The PC market has already been suffering, due a number of reasons, but most recently by massive hard drive price hikes due to the recent floods in Thailand, that hit factories. There has also been a slowdown in the PC market that’s affected major PC manufacturers. Intel is a dominant force in the PC market and any major changes in Apple’s policies and switching to ARM-based processors could make things more difficult for Intel. Intel will have to come up with a strong x86 product that could attract customers, this year. Tablet manufacturers and Apple specifically, have been confident and feel that tablets would soon overpower and replace desktops and notebooks.