Apple to Adopt Alternative Chipsets for Next Laptops?

AppleInsider claims that Apple will forgo the use of Intel's Montevina chipset in their next generation laptops. Instead, Apple will either design their own chipsets or could adopt 3rd part chipsets from AMD or Via.

It should be said however, this does not mean that Apple will be moving away from Intel's processors. The chipsets are simply the support chips required to interconnect the processor and the rest of the computer. Intel's Montevina platform (now known as Centrino 2) consists of a Penryn processor, the Montevina chipset and wireless networking interface. Future laptops will continue to use Intel's most recent Penryn processors which provide improved bus-speeds (1066MHz).

To the customer, Apple's decision to use 3rd party or custom chipsets is not of great significance, as all the chipsets should be functionally identical. However, AppleInsider speculates that Apple must believe there is some competitive advantage in pursuing alternative chipsets, such as improved power consumption.