Apple has secretly opened a lab in Oregon and hired ex-Intel and other employees from Oregon tech firms. Going by social network profiles, job postings, and other mediums, sources familiar with Apple’s recruiting team have said that various people have been employed in various capacities.
Apple is mysteriously quiet about the whole affair and hasn’t commented on the new facility. It is not known how many people the California-based giant plans on hiring for the Oregon factory, what products will be made there, or what its exact location is.
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According to a person familiar with Apple’s hiring, the new facility is located in Washington County, near the border between Hillsboro and Beaverton. This means it is in the vicinity of Oregon’s hardware hub and away from the web services and software firms located in downtown Portland.
According to one job posted by Apple in Oregon, it is looking for a design verification expert who will ensure that finished products are as per the original specs. According to LinkedIn, Apple started hiring people for the Washington County since November. A good many employees hired for the new facility previously worked for Intel as engineers and senior research officers.
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Many large tech firms are located in Oregon and the region has many skilled IT professionals. The best part is that the hiring market isn’t that competitive. Apart from Apple, Intel, eBay, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and Intel have facilities in Oregon.
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Apple is already familiar with the region, which would make sense now but the main question is why would Apple attempt to hire Intel engineers and bring it to its side. It obviously wants more expertise when it comes to making a chip that will not only make the upcoming MacBook more capable in terms of processing firepower but to make it impressive in the battery endurance stages too.
However, it was reported earlier that Apple’s custom chip-touting MacBook would be introduced as early as 2020, meaning that while the hiring process is still going on, it will take a while for the final product to materialize.
Many reports are coming in stating that Apple could also be working on an ARM-based hybrid notebook with touchscreen capabilities, but the company’s Senior Vice President of product marketing, Phil Schiller said that it will not use the touchscreen feature on its notebook lineup any time soon.
This is certainly turning into one mysterious product and we’ll definitely be updating you on its release in the near future.
Source: Oregon Live
