Apple acquired chip maker in PA Semi April, with this it was speculated that Apple is looking to utilize the Chips being developed by PA Semi. Wei-han Lien who worked with PA Semi now posts his Job profile on LinkedIn as “ARM CPU architecture team for iPhone”. Apple does its hardware itself. Unlike other ecosystems where say a Microsoft makes a software and different vendors do the hardware, Apple does both of them together.
This means that they value integration much higher and at the same time it makes sense for Apple to reply less on outside companies for design / supplies. Apple invested billions in NAND flash memory and it paid off, its time for chips now? The next generation iPhones and iPods are most like to carry the PA Semi designed chips that Apple now makes in-house. But more importantly they might be able to optimize the performance / efficiency to lead the mobile market.