Intel apologises for iPhone rant

Chipmaker Intel has released an apology for comments made by its executives this week on the inadequacies of the iPhone and the ARM processor driving it.

Intel's Anand Chandrasekher at the developer forum
(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)

At the company's developer forum in Taipei, Shane Wall, Intel's VP, mobility group and director strategic planning, platform architecture and software, ultra-mobility group had remarked on the iPhone's performance. "Any sort of application that requires any horse power at all and the iPhone struggles," he said.

Pankaj Kedia, director of ecosystems for Intel's ultra-mobility group blamed the device's slowness on the phone's ARM processor. "The shortcomings of the iPhone are not because of Apple. The shortcomings of the iPhone have come from ARM."

Intel senior VP Anand Chandrasekher yesterday issued what he said was a correction on the executives' words, saying that Intel's Atom processor had not yet matched the battery life characteristics of the rival ARM processor for devices the size of a phone.

"While Intel does have plans on the books to get us to be competitive in the ultra low power domain — we are not there as yet," he said.

The olive branch was also extended to Apple. "Secondly, Apple's iPhone offering is an extremely innovative product that enables new and exciting market opportunities."

Chandrasekher said the comments made by Intel executives Shane Wall and Pankaj Kedia this week at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei had been inappropriate and that Intel representatives should not have commented on specific customer designs.

The comments came just as Apple reported that booming sales of the device made it account for 39 per cent of the company's business.

Apple hasn't been frightened to give Intel the cold shoulder in the past, such as earlier this month when it said the new Apple MacBook and MacBook Air will both come with Nvidia graphics instead of the Intel integrated graphics used in older models.