An analyst at Jefferies & Company has offered his take on the prospect of an Apple future that merges operating environments and taps more into Apple's in-house chip technology.

"We believe Apple is looking to merge iOS (iPhones/iPads) with OS X (Macs) into a single platform for apps and cloud services starting in 2012-13," Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek wrote in an August 2 research note entitled "One to Rule Them All: iOS and OS X Roadmaps to Merge."

Highlights of Misek's research note:

An IHS-iSuppli analyst believes Android and the cadre of tablet makers that use Google's operating system won't catch up to Apple's iPad and iOS anytime soon.

Wayne Lam, senior analyst, competitive analysis, at IHS, spoke to CNET on Monday, in the wake of a research note about the iPad's design advantages over tablet suppliers that use Google's Android operating system.

In the note, Lam said that Android tablet manufacturers still can't match the design efficiency of Apple's iPad, due to, among other things, the fact that Apple controls both the operating system and … Read more

The pairing of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 with processors from companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia is expected to spawn a new kind of low-cost laptop, according to IHS-iSuppli, possibly threatening Intel's overwhelming dominance in laptops.

"After more than 30 years of domination by a single microarchitecture--Intel Corp.'s X86--the PC microprocessor...market finally is set for some real competition," Matthew Wilkins, an analyst at IHS-iSuppli, wrote in a research note today.

This will happen as shipments of ARM processors soar in the coming years, eventually shipping in about one out of every four laptops in 2015, … Read more

By-the-numbers MBAs are not always a good fit for U.S. companies. Particularly those in the business of product innovation. Just imagine a bean-counting mathematical-model-driven MBA running Apple.

Instead of the iPad, we might have an Apple Netbook. Instead of the iPhone, a Rokr. In short, products that are low risk, devoid of inspiration, and easy on the balance sheet.

MBA-as-CEO is a point eloquently made by Bob Lutz, the former Vice Chairman of General Motors. While MBAs have a role to play, the by-the-numbers, post-1970s variety sitting at the top of the corporate chain of command can be devastating … Read more

Apple has consigned trial production of its future A6 processor to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and not Samsung, its traditional manufacturing partner, according to a Reuters report.

The A6 processor is still a distant destination on Apple's chip road map. It isn't expected to appear in products until 2012, and analysts believe it will be quad-core, a first for an Apple A series chip. The A5, used in the iPad 2, is a dual-core processor.

Talk of Apple jumping to Taipei-based TSMC has been driven, in part, by the legal skirmishes between Apple and Samsung. The latter has been Apple's sole manufacturing source for A4 and A5 processors. … Read more

LOS ANGELES--At Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference here, Windows tablets were on display tables but not in attendees' hands.

Windows 7 tablets from Fujitsu, Motion Computing, TabletKiosk, and others occupied a sizable swath of display area inside a pavilion devoted to Microsoft hardware and software partners. But walking the floor for five hours made it quickly apparent that iPads--being used by attendees--occupied the entire pavilion.

To be fair, Windows 7 tablets exist because they meet a need. For example, the retail and health care industries are big customers. And companies like Fujitsu and Lenovo will likely continue to provide hardware to those markets.

But the classic Microsoft tablet PC design does not--and never will--appeal to the much larger consumer market, where Apple and the Android camp now dominate.

There are plenty of reasons why consumers--including the "businesspeople" attending WPC 2011--don't buy Windows 7 tablets. And, conversely, why they do buy Apple's iPad. Two big reasons are the fact that Windows 7 has not been optimized for tablets and the popularity of iOS apps versus older "legacy" Windows applications. But design also plays a big role.… Read more

Motorola has at long last reduced the Xoom's entry price to $499, while Toshiba's new Thrive starts at $429, bringing some needed price relief to the tablet market.

Motorola today cut the price on the Wi-Fi only 10-inch Xoom tablet to $499, from $599. The Xoom's high price has stigmatized it from the beginning as being uncompetitive with Apple's iPad.

But today's price drop changed that: the Xoom's specifications now make it quite competitive with Apple's iPad. For example, the $499 Xoom with the Android 3.1 operating system has 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of system memory versus the $499 iPad's 16GB and 512KB, respectively.

Motorola's new pricing also takes on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1, whose Android 3.1-based Wi-Fi version is priced at $499 with 16GB of memory and 1GB of system memory.

And Toshiba's 10-inch Android 3.1 tablet is even cheaper. For $429, the Thrive--now up for sale--packs 8GB of flash storage and 1GB of system memory. A model with 16GB of flash is $479, undercutting the price of the similarly configured iPad. Two features of note are the Thrive's removable battery and SD card slot, distinguishing it from the Xoom and iPad. … Read more

The tablet era has arrived at big-box retailers, which are now setting aside large swaths of floor space previously devoted to traditional PCs.

Best Buy is probably the highest-profile example of this trend. At U.S. stores, it has overhauled--or is in the process of overhauling--display areas. Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Xoom, and Hewlett-Packard TouchPad now get prominent placement at stores, rendering the iPad just one among equals.

This is all part of Best Buy's "Tablet Central" strategy. Here's how Bill Seymour, vice president of investor relations at Best Buy, explained … Read more

As Google's Android continues to experience birthing pains in tablets, Windows 8 has emerged as an attractive, albeit still distant, alternative.

By the time Windows 8 tablets hit the market in 2012, Microsoft will have had ample time to analyze the initial missteps of the Android platform, not to mention its own unimpressive attempts at "slate" operating systems over the years. Generally speaking, Microsoft may miss with the first few whacks at something new but they're usually good at eventually nailing an operating environment. If only because of their tenacity. They will persevere for years, even … Read more