Intel should be ashamed of its Apple silicon attack ads

By Oliver Haslam
published

Intel logo
Intel logo (Image credit: Intel)

Apple released its M1 chips into the wild at the end of last year and Intel's nose was immediately pushed out of joint. Speed tests of all kinds have shown that the first-generation Apple silicon bests Intel's chips handily, and the chipmaker isn't happy. So it's gone on the offensive.

Not by making better chips – it's still struggling with that. Instead, Intel is running attack ads that are trying to show what the M1 can't do. Whether the arguments are valid, or not.

The goings-on of the last couple of days are actually sad to see. I remember Intel and Apple getting together to rid us of the IBM PowerPC chips that were holding Macs back in the 1990s. I remember everyone being excited to see what those super-fast Pentium chips could do. And they did a lot, making some great machines over the years. But now Intel is IBM, and Apple – ably abetted by TSMC – is the world leader in making chips that are fast, use little power, and don't cook people's laps. It would have been nice if the two companies could have shaken hands and gone their separate ways. But that isn't how things go down.

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Instead, Intel is trying to convince people that you can't use Macs to play games and scientists only use PCs which is frankly laughable. It's schoolyard stuff and smacks of desperation at a time where Intel's efforts would be best served by trying to get some new chips designed. I'm sure it's trying. I'm even sure it's been trying for a long time. But Apple tried and accomplished it.

The more I think about it, the more this all seems like nothing more than Intel trying to save face than actually change any buying decisions. One report posited that Intel would be better off without Apple's business and others have noted that Apple's orders account for just a couple of percent of Intel's chip sales. So, Intel. Why so angry?

Could it be that Intel has a new CEO coming in and he wants to make a splash? Incoming chief Pat Gelsinger recently said that Apple is a lifestyle company in the same breath that he also said Intel needed to catch up.

Maybe Gelsinger has found out that throwing shade on Twitter is easier than actually doing the work.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

4 Comments
  • Maybe you should write an article outlining how Macs can do everything a PC can do? I personally don't think it's true, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
  • Or maybe Apple simply wasn't the nice guy in this fruitful cooperation. Sure it would be better to say goodbye nicely and shake hands. Also tell that to xCloud, Epic Games and so on...
  • Relax. Were you not around for the classic "I'm a Mac an I'm a PC" commercials? Apple pioneered this type of ad in the tech industry and I'm sure you were rolling with laughter everyone you watched them.
  • Intel is getting desperate. They completely missed the mobile computer revolution. Phones and tablets are where the action is now. None of those run on Intel. Not to mention that Windows is down to 61% of desktop PC market in the U.S., while Mac is up to 30%. Losing Apple is only the first step. Assuming MS ever finishes WOA, lots of other PC vendors will be selling ARM Windows laptops. Intel's sales are only doing to go down in the future. So of course, they now have to complain about Apple. 15 years ago, Intel was VERY proud to have Apple as a customer.