But the chip industry moves at a fast pace, and Apple is taking on more responsibility with custom processor design. Right now, the iPhone 5 has a separate CPU and baseband chip, but will have to keep up with Qualcomm, which already offers a Snapdragon S4 dual-core chip with an integrated radio, and Nvidia, which is on its way to integrating software-defined radios in future Tegra chips.

The company has to tweak chip designs or microarchitectures to keep pace with advancements in manufacturing process technology, much like Intel's tick-tock strategy, which advances chip technology in line with the manufacturing process, Anandtech's Shimpi said. It appears that the A6 chip may be made by Samsung based on the 32-nanometer process, he guessed.

Contract chip manufacturer TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) is already making chips with the 28-nm process, and GlobalFoundries this week said it will start making chips using the 20-nm process in 2013 and the 14-nm process in 2014.

Gwennap said that Apple has able chip leadership in Peter Bannon, an Apple director who came to the company with the 2008 acquisition of PA Semi, and Gerard Wallace, an ARM fellow who was one of the leaders in the team that developed the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A15 CPU. Apple's former platform architect Jim Keller was recently hired away by Advanced Micro Devices to run the processor division.

"They've been hiring like crazy," Gwennap said of Apple. "They have the ability to bring in the people they need."