Intel had some love for Apple during the company's investor day meeting on Thursday. According to CNet, Kirk Skaugen, senior vice president of Intel's PC Client Group, credited Apple with pushing Intel to improve battery performance.
"We're extremely excited about the MacBook Air," Mr. Skaugen said. "Essentially, cooperating with Apple doubled the battery life from generation to generation—from 6 to 12.5 hours on the MacBook Air."
MacBook Air (mid-2013)
Apple's 2013 MacBook air model was introduced during June's World Wide Developer Conference, and they were the first Apple laptop to get Intel's then-new Haswell processor. At the time, the devices were described as having "all day battery life."
Reports have circulated for years that Apple was riding Intel hard to improve battery life, but this is one of the first times I've heard where Intel both acknowledged that pressure and credited Apple for cooperating to make it happen.
The result has been smaller devices and longer battery life across Apple's MacBook Pro and Air lines. Apple has also been pushing hard with its own ARM-based Ax processors, where Apple was able to significantly reduce the size and weight of the iPad Air using a substantially smaller battery, while offering 10 percent more battery life in the device.
All of which isn't all that bad for a company that the mainstream insists is devoid of innovations in the post-Steve Jobs era.