Intel Senior VP Pat Gelsinger Says MacBook Pro Latest Apple-Intel Product

In an interview for Computer Reseller News, Paula Rooney asked Intel Senior VP and General Manager of the Digital Enterprise Group, Pat Gelsinger several questions related to Apple Computer.

CRN: Intel shared the stage at IDF with Apple. How will Intel's relationship with Apple evolve in 2007, or is the cooperation mostly finished?
GELSINGER: It's far from done. Let's take it in phases. First, there was the honeymoon, where we won Apple as a customer. The second phase was execution and getting products done and, third, we just finished that. The MacBook Pro was the last product. We just finished the birthing.

We've just gotten that done, but a number of projects are under way with Apple on next-generation technologies -- but I can't detail those. Apple is very secretive, even to us. It's the nature of the company.

CRN: Has Microsoft expressed concern about the Intel-Apple pairing or frowned at your relationship with yet another new operating-system vendor besides Linux?
GELSINGER: Well, certainly, of course. They look at it that way. But our response [to Microsoft] is that we have a customer that wants to use our silicon. Of course we support them. At the same time, I'd say our Microsoft relationship is as good if not better than it has been in our 20-year history.

CRN: Do you expect Vista to drive a big PC refresh in 2007?
GELSINGER: We are expecting a positive [increase in PC sales]. A big refresh would clearly be overstating it.

While it is great to see that Apple and Intel are working on next-generation technologies that will no doubt be of great value for both companies, this is not the most interesting part of the interview. When Gelsinger says that "the MacBook Pro was the last product," what is he talking about? The MacBook Pro was one of the first Macs to feature an Intel processor, and was announced at the beginning of the year. The last product to make the transition was the Mac Pro, and after that came out, the iMac got a revision, but that probably does not count as it was a simple matter of changing the processor.

Is this one of those slips that Jobs gets angry about? Have Apple and Intel been working on a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro that has just been finished and is soon to hit the shelves? Or was that simply supposed to be Mac Pro?