Perhaps more significantly, it turns out that
Brian Klug also left AnandTech for Apple, a few months ago.
That explains why he suddenly went "radio silent" (and it also explains why there have been no new AnandTech podcasts since much earlier this year, as those were largely the Anand and Brian show).
Not great for tech journalism generally, as both of them were fantastic (though, as Anand pointed out in his resignation message, Ian has been running the CPU reviews for quite some time, and Josh has been handling mobile for 90% of the stuff). But, probably very good for Apple. And, also, I think (especially with the "new" Apple more-open-ness) I think it could be great for the tech journalism industry as well.
If you've followed AT for a while, or especially if you've listened to any of their podcasts, you know that both Anand and Brian felt very strongly about how important it was for silicon vendors to be more open with the press about their products (if not before release, at least upon release). They spent years badgering Intel, AMD, and Nvidia into giving details like die configurations, and nitty-gritty information on features, and have often talked about how the mobile CPU space is a whole new battleground. You know they're going to bring that same mindset to Apple, and make those same arguments from within the meeting rooms there. Brian was probably hired as an actual "builder", so I'm not sure how much influence he'd be able to wield... But I'm betting Anand is a higher-level hire. He's going to be running some project, and will have influence when it comes to releasing products. I wouldn't be shocked to see him on stage at WWDC next year, or the year after.
It's possible they hired Anand for the Marketing department. But I'd be willing to bet a beer that he isn't. I don't think he would have left AnandTech to go become a marketing drone. Had he wanted to do that, he's had contacts all along and could have made it happen anytime he wanted.
No... They grabbed Klug. Then they grabbed Anand himself (maybe they were trying for both the whole time). It went something like: "You're passionate about the features and capabilities the industry puts in silicon. Come work with us, and help build the next generation of CPU X for product Y."
It makes me wonder if they're really planning to make a run of it moving OSX to ARM and building their own CPUs for the Mac line. I've been EXTREMELY skeptical of this rumor and speculation (and, I'll note, if so, I'm still very skeptical of it)... But... That would be a project that I can see Anand and Brian really considering...
"We're building our own desktop-class CPUs. We want you to help."
"But, you'll get crushed. Intel is two process nodes ahead of everyone else, and the ARM architecture's power advantage is already almost nothing and shrinking with each generation."
"That big war chest we have? We're also building our own fabs." (or, perhaps, "Intel will be fabbing them for us.") "You can help build and design this architecture from the ground up. Who else can hope to compete with Intel head-to-head, and spark a re-invigoration of the general CPU space. AMD isn't going to do it. We are."
That answer has power, and would be quite appealing to people like them, I suspect.
Author
Topic: Anand leaves AnandTech for Apple (Read 1693 times)