Apple To Buy ARM?

gyrogeerloose writes "An article in the London Evening Standard claims that Apple has made an $8 billion offer to acquire ARM Holdings. For those few Slashdotters who don't already know, ARM makes the processor chips that power Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. However, ARM processors are also used by other manufacturers, including Palm and, perhaps most significantly, companies building Android phones. This explains why Apple might be willing to spend so much on the deal — almost 20% of its cash reserves. Being able to control who gets to use the processors (and, more importantly, who doesn't) would give Apple a huge advantage over its competitors."

Comments

Turnabout is fair play

[Orga]

In reaction to Apple's move to purchase ARM Google moves to acquire Chinese sweatshops.

Be very afraid.

[Supacon]

Now this is scary. One small step for Apple towards their global technocratic dictatorship.

Its

[LBArrettAnderson]

Its. Come on. We all passed 2nd grade, didn't we?

(at the time of this posting, the last line in the summary was "would give Apple a huge advantage over it's competitors")

Re:Nice Qoute

[e2d2]

Quote also. WTF's a Qoute? Does it go well with chicken?

Re:Buying ARM for a leg?

[EJB]

And I can't possibly see that threat as a good thing, even in the eyes of the most hard-core Apple cheerleader/fanatic.

I think you're much too kind here to your average apple fanboy, or you are not reading sites like MacRumors. Here's an example that is coherently written (a big plus among posts from people who would like to see Apple buy ARM)

Re:Buying ARM for a leg?

[illumin8]

Microsoft, after all, just controls the operating system; Apple controls (or wants to control) everything from the operating system and the hardware to what kind of software you run and data you are allowed to access.

Absolutely not true. Microsoft has continuously abused their monopoly in OS marketshare to monopolize new markets, including:

* Office document creation software.
* Office document formats, increasing their monopoly control over document creation software.
* Web browsers.
* Server file sharing protocols (SMB, etc).
* Directory and Authentication (Active Directory).
* Internet based single sign on (Windows Live, Passport, etc).
* Internet search (they've tried, with such underhanded tricks as replacing the default search engine automatically during forced updates to their monopoly browser, but still can't shake Google).
* Browser-based plugins (Silverlight - although again Adobe seems to be beating them here).
* Online gaming (Games for Windows Live, XBox Live).

In fact, out of all those monopoly abused areas that Microsoft has tried to leverage their desktop monopoly to corner, they have only been unsuccessful in a few, namely Internet Search, Browser plugins, and online gaming (on PC, not Xbox).

Apple has only ~5% desktop market share and ~5% mobile phone marketshare (~29% smartphone marketshare).

The only thing Apple has a monopoly on is products that don't suck. Name one example where they've tried to use their monopoly in products that don't suck to capture a new market. It doesn't exist.

Re:Buying ARM for a leg?

[jcr]

. If they're going to spend $8 billion just to piss it away by killing ARM's revenue they'd be better served by spending the money to subsidize iPhone sales by cutting the price.

Don't you just hate it when economics debunks a good conspiracy theory? I remember the rumor that McDonald's was adding worms to their burgers getting quashed when someone looked up what worms cost, and how much more expensive they are than beef.

-jcr