boltarus

vision33r said:

Apple has a very small marketshare compared to Intel's windows and servers business. Intel will do just fine, what Apple needs is more efficient processors and not the same design philosophy with Intel which keeps pushing out CPUs that are meant for higher workloads.  Intel's CPU designs doesn't match with Apple's devices.

Quite right, and in fact the whole PC market is getting to be a smaller and smaller chunk of Intel's business.  But I think it is the bigger picture here that is at least interesting: What does Apple's abandonment of Intel say about bigger trends in the whole PC market?  It does seem that there is a strong possibility of a tectonic shift away from X86 processors in the PC market as a whole; Apple's shift is symptomatic rather than causative.  I think what happens with the PC market will depend on whether Intel invests resources to fight back, or simply chooses to focus on more lucrative markets.  In any case the ball is in Intel's court at the moment, and I don't think their continued dominance long-term is in any way guaranteed.  

beowulfschmidt said:

I'm confused by this statement.  If the activities were permissible, why does it matter whether they were done knowingly or not?

If permissible, it doesn't matter. But at the time the case is argued, the lawyers have no idea which arguments will succeed and which will not. So one makes arguments to attack each of the legal requirements for a guilty ruling.