Apple Inc. (AAPL) Developing Proprietary Laptop CPU?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been developing its own ecosystem in the mobile world with iPods, iPads and iPhones. And with all this work, to make itself the go-to brand in mobile, it has essentially put laptop and desktop computers on the back burner, which has been following the vision of late CEO Steve Jobs. But as the company commemorated the one-year anniversary of Jobs’ passing, there are some indications that current CEO Tim Cook may be working on bringing desktops and laptops back into the company’s consciousness – but shying away from a longtime partnership with chipmaker Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC).

As part of a longer article in BusinessWeek, Cook has been dutifully leading Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to release every product that Jobs personally gave his OK. But now, as the laptop and desktop world has evolved and many companies are now working toward developing their own siloed ecosystems like Apple Inc. (AAPL) had been doing, now Cook may be looking to develop that ecosystem down to the finest detail. And in this case, it may even mean making its own central processing unit (CPU) instead of using Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) chips as it has in the past. Intel has been a prominent partner for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Windows-based PCs.

As Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) created its own A-series CPUs for iPods, iPads and iPhones, it might make sense for the company to develop similar units for MacBooks and other similar devices, as the company would then have better control over the features and finer details of the operations of its hardware and software. While a move to proprietary CPUs may not seem to be in the short-term, it certainly would give Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) a chance to contrast itself from its competitors, namely Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Certainly investors in Apple stock like billionaire fund manager Julian Robertson of Tiger Management would appreciate that Apple stock is up 75 percent since Cook took over for Jobs – and that might mean that they trust Cook’s judgment at this point.