[seanm]

They've already switched platforms twice (68XX->PPC, PPC->i386) pretty successfully, why can't they ship ARM/i386 fat binaries?

Also, this is the whole endgame of the A* series of chips that are currently in the phone and iPad. Whose to say that the A5 or A6 won't be multicore laptop/desktop chips? Apple would be fools to tie their future Intel's roadmap if they can possibly avoid it. It's not like Apple buys in sufficient quantities to force Intel to meet their specific requirements in chip designs, and even if they did, there would still be a year turnaround to get something from Intel to market. Imagine if the iPad was dependent on the Intel Atom? We never would have seen the iPad.

(btw. an iPad based on the Atom was an actual early prototype according to a friend of a friend that I have no reason to disbelieve).