I don't really understand why Apple would spend half a billion on buying chip manufacturers and paying their employees. What is the benefit for them to throw away profit and get into competition with part suppliers?<p>Seems like a poor business decision to branch so far from their core business model - especially in a field where you have to keep up with heavy competition. Haven't they always bought their chips from IBM(PPC) or Intel(newer Macs and ARM chips for iPhone), previous to this?
I thought the A4 was a result of their acquisition of PA Semi a couple of years back.<p>I doesn't really make sense for them to develop the chip offsite, and then buy the company <i>after</i> it ships. Especially when they've already got the team to do it internally.
It's a bit strange how Jobs is referred to as "Steven P. Jobs", I checked Apple's exec profile and it's still Steve Jobs according to Apple.
<a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/jobs.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/jobs.html</a>