Apple's Jobs still shapes PC laptop future
Of course it doesn't hurt that the Air has been the highest-profile thin laptop since 2008.And Apple has been evangelizing it like no one else--which can be traced directly to Steve Jobs.(Though Dell tried to promote the Adamo, and Sony has made efforts with laptops like the Vaio X.) Maybe most importantly, Jobs and Apple have had a particularly big influence on Intel (though Intel executives don't usually readily admit this)--in turn, probably the single most influential hardware player in the PC industry. Intel CEO Paul Otellini made a rare appearance with Jobs at the Air debut in 2008.Here's what Otellini said at the time: "A year ago, you challenged us to get [our] microprocessor into this impossibly thin machine.... When we started this project we didn't think it was possible.... There are times that we sweated over it. But at the end of the day, we did what we do best together, which is to innovate." Some of the fruits of that project now can be found at the core of all Ultrabooks. And Intel was challenged again with the most recent MacBook Air, which packs the chipmaker's most power-efficient central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) combined onto one chip.An Intel executive recently admitted that Apple threatened to drop its chips if the company didn't improve power efficiency.This is quintessential Apple: badgering a company to improve its product or risk elimination. (When IBM's and Motorola's PowerPC chip roadmap didn't hew to Jobs' vision, Apple dumped PowerPC and went with Intel.)Whatever happens, Apple and Jobs have made their mark on laptop design for years to come.And despite the popularity of iPhones and iPads, consumers worldwide will continue to buy millions of laptops every year with Jobs' and colleague Jonathan Ive's fingerprints all over them.
