Apple’s Ultra-Mobile strategy becomes clearer

It has been reported that Apple will use Intel’s ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) platform for its next-generation devices. We speculate that this might include an ultra-portable laptop and a touch-based device that might look like a bigger iPhone.

The Intel “Menlow” platform is very important for upcoming gadgets: it is made of “Silverthorne”, a tiny, low-power processor and “Poulsbo”, the chipset that controls the motherboard.

Is it surprising that Apple goes to Intel for this stuff? Not really, simply because there aren’t a lot of options out there. There’s no way that Apple will use VIA, like many others do, because they are too low-end. It is also unlikely that Apple would try to build this by itself. The good news is: expect ultra-small computers from Apple in 2008.