Steve Jobs introduced not one, but two new products last month: the iPad and Apple's custom made A4 chip. Analysts have yet to autopsy the chip to uncover its secrets, but even more interesting is what it takes for a company like Apple to manufacture its own chip: about $1 billion, according to The New York Times.
"Even without the direct investment of a factory, it can cost these companies about $1 billion to create a smartphone chip from scratch," reports NY Times' Ashlee Vance.
That makes Apple's $278 million acquisition of semiconductor manufacturer PA Semi look like pocket change. And hopefully Apple's investment will pay off not just for the company, but also for iPad owners: The 1-GHz A4 chip, Apple promises, will help preserve the iPad's battery for up to 10 hours of active use and one month of standby.
And considering the enormous cost of developing this chip, iPhone owners can have faith that the A4 will most likely appear in future iPhones. Maybe we'll see an A4-powered iPhone debut this summer, and all our complaints about battery life will disappear. After that, all we'd have left to complain about is AT&T.
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