We attended Intel's cooling presentation this morning.
Intel's engineer complains that Apple is more concerned about making its products pretty than fixing their overheating problems.
What can Intel do to stop companies like Apple from selling overheating designs? "Nothing", presenter says.
In the quick IDF 2011 notes category, we wanted to share a humorous exchange we had with an Intel Corp. (INTC) engineer. Joshua Linden-Levy is a "Mechanical Pathfinding Engineer" at Intel and delivered a terrific presentation on cooling in Oak Trail, the Intel Atom platform that replaces Pine Trail.
In the presentation Mr. Linden-Levy discussed how the target temperature for laptops was 58 Celsius, according to industry standards. Given the high temperatures long suffered by various editions of Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) MacBook Pros, we wanted to ask him how Intel plans to keep its partners (like Apple) from violating the proposed thermal guidelines on Oak Trail and its other product lines (Apple is unlikely to use Oak Trail, but typically uses other Intel's mainstream notebook and desktop processor lines in its models).
During the Q&A session Mr. Linden-Levy acknowledged hearing about Apple's laptop thermal issues. What can Intel do prevent partners from committing such thermal botch jobs? "Nothing," says Mr. Linden-Levy, "[the manufacturer will] just get a bad reputation among consumers."
As we discussed the issue further he added, "Well as you know, with Apple their chief priority is always form and looks -- everything else, including cooling design is an afterthought."
We found the presenter's informed, earnest unscripted dialogue about one of his company's largest partners refreshing.
Currently the thermal problem-plagued MacBook Pro models sell for almost twice the price of comparable hardware models from ASUSTEK Computer Inc. (TPE:2357). Of course ASUSTEK's laptops lack the special aluminum unibody -- but when that unibody can get as hot as 100 degrees Celsius, it's hardly a selling point.
To be fair, less pricey models from Sony Corp. (TYO:6758) and Dell, Inc. (DELL) have suffered from similar issues [1][2]. Unlike these companies, though, Apple often refuses to recall or fully patch its faulty products.
"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." -- Michael Dell, after being asked what to do with Apple Computer in 1997
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