Apple is looking to the future for its iPhone / iPod touch mobile platform - and repeating history in a way. The company has snapped up two former ATI/AMD chip designers, a move which many designers consider foreshadowing of Apple’s plans to introduce custom silicon in future iterations of its mobile platform.

Since Apple acquired chip manufacturer P.A. Semi last year, many have speculated as to what Apple planned to do with the firm’s processor expertise. This latest revelation is one piece of the puzzle. As the Wall Street Journal reports, Apple executive Mark Papermaster will also begin working at the company after he was delayed by a legal settlement with IBM, his former employer. Papermaster is famous for developing the PowerPC chip architecture.

Battery life will become increasingly important to Apple as the company begins placing staking more and more of its future on handhelds and smartphones. The ARM processors which currently power iPhone OS devices have a reputation for being horribly inefficient, so it makes sense for Apple to attempt a much more frugal solution. Internal chip development will also help Apple maintain a tighter grip on secrecy about future products, especially since its been plagued by recent leaks from its Asian suppliers. Internal chip development will also let the company tune its software and hardware to work together with peak efficiency, which will become more and more important as the smartphone space continues to heat up.

One question is whether Apple will also develop chips for desktop computers. After all the confusion of the switch to Intel chips several years ago, it seems foolish of Apple to go through the entire process all over again. Then again, we have yet to see what its internal teams will come up with. The WSJ estimated that Apple-stamped chips won’t begin making their way into shipping hardware until at least until 2010.

(Via The Apple Blog.)