Apple always want to keep all options open – unlike in the past – but that doesn’t necessarily mean Apple will move away from Intel. They probably have plans to do it and teams working on it, but as long as Intel can deliver what they need they won’t.<p>I think they are well prepared for every eventuality, but currently Intel’s and Apple’s interests are pretty well aligned.<p>Basically we are seeing a race towards a common goal from two directions here, though: Can Intel hit the low power goals (with sufficient performance) before Apple hits their performance goals (at low power) through some alternate route? Honestly, I don’t see Apple being able to touch Intel’s performance and with regards to power use Intel is getting better all the time. The space for ARM-like laptop chips is getting smaller by the day.<p>And Intel actually wants to hit that low power! It’s not like they are disinterested in that (like IBM being disinterested in making the CPUs Apple needs back in the day because they were making their money elsewhere and Apple was just a small, unimportant customer of them, not worth all the effort), they are working on that all the time.<p>That’s what I mean when I say their interests are aligned. I mean, I obviously think that Apple is always on the lookout for alternatives (and they have been through many such transitions by now, so I’m very confident that they would be able to pull it off), but I honestly think they would prefer their and Intel’s interests to remain aligned and Intel just making some kick-ass low-power CPUs, exactly what they need for their future retina resolution, light-weight, super-thin, all-day battery life, fanless MacBooks.