PC makers to adopt chips used in MacBook Air
Processors specially developed by Intel for Apple's new MacBook Air laptop will soon be used by other PC vendors in systems, possibly creating competition for what Apple calls the world's lightest and thinnest notebook.
Context & Ripple Effects
The MacBook Air's defining claim — the world's lightest, thinnest notebook — rests on processors Intel built specifically for Apple, following Apple's move onto Intel's ultra-mobile platform reported in December 2007. That arrangement is now opening up: Intel plans to sell the same custom parts to other vendors, with Lenovo and Fujitsu named as early takers.
The timing sharpens the stakes. Gartner forecasts Apple doubling its U.S. and Western European PC share by 2011 on the strength of designs like the Air, while Apple shares have taken significant losses amid economic uncertainty — so any erosion of the Air's hardware exclusivity lands directly on the product carrying that growth story.
First-order effects
- Lenovo and Fujitsu gain access to the exact silicon behind the MacBook Air, letting them field ultrathin systems whose core component no longer distinguishes Apple's machine.
- Apple's differentiation on what it markets as the world's thinnest notebook shifts from chip-level exclusivity to industrial design, build quality, and OS — layers rivals can still contest.
Second-order effects
- With multiple vendors shipping the same ultra-mobile parts, Intel can treat the ultrathin category as a standardized platform, which pressures pricing in the premium thin-and-light tier Apple currently defines.
- Rivals get a shortcut to credibility in a segment they had not cracked: instead of waiting for their own silicon roadmaps, Lenovo and Fujitsu can match the Air's component spec cycle-for-cycle.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — Apple-first silicon flowing out to the broader PC market within months — the durable advantage migrates to whoever controls the design and software stack around commodity parts, a structure that rewards Apple only if its integration lead keeps widening.
- For Intel, seeding one vendor's bespoke chip into many OEM lines sets a template where the chipmaker, not any single PC maker, curates which designs become an industry category.
The trend: Intel is converting Apple's bespoke mobile silicon into an industry-standard ultra-thin laptop platform, pushing notebook competition from component exclusivity toward design and ecosystem.