Apple Could Take 50% Bite Out Of Intel's Business In 2021: Report

Apple Inc AAPL announced last year it will transition away from its long-time associate Intel Corporation INTC, and begin to focus on its in-house chips.

The decision has had its impact on Intel, which is already going through fundamental woes.

What Happened: Apple's move away from Intel across all its products will be complete in 2022, McRumors said, citing Digitimes. Thus far, Apple has released only four Macs with the first iteration of its chips, codenamed M1.

Due to the four Macs with M1 chips and the upcoming Apple product releases this year, Intel will have lost about 50% of Apple business in 2021, the report said.

Eventually, Intel will have no orders from Apple, and Intel's share of the processor market may slip below 80% in 2023, it added.

"Losing Apple's 10% market share and seeing Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. AMD staying firmly with another 10%, Intel's share in the notebook market is likely to slip below 80% in 2023, the sources noted," Digitimes reported.

Related Link: 10 Things Apple Investors May Wish For In 2021

To make matters worse for Intel, Apple is reportedly testing high-end Apple chips with up to 32 high-performance cores and 127 core options for graphic uses in its upcoming Mac laptop and desktop releases, according to Bloomberg.

The high-performance processors will be part of several Macs, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and its desktop computers, the Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini, according to the report.

Why It's Important: Intel's business is on the wane for some time now, primarily due to product delays. On the other hand, AMD is upping the ante by bringing out cost-competitive, superior products.

Paul Gelsinger, the new CEO at Intel, is betting on the hybrid manufacturing model of splitting between in-house and contract chip manufacturing. Analysts are skeptical of how viable this strategy will be in the near- to medium-term.

Stung by the gradual loss of the Apple business, Intel has been vociferously promoting its chips by advertising laptops powered by its chips are far better than those with Apple chips.

At last check, Apple shares were down 0.78% at $130.76 and Intel was slipping 3.40% at $55.23.

Related Link: 5 Features From Apple WWDC's First Day That Stand Out To Gene Munster

(Photo: Weldon Kirsch for Intel)