Jun. 21--Leading-edge products draw innovators

If you rip open one of those new iPhones that went on sale Thursday -- an unlikely scenario -- you'll find, nestled among the passel of tightly packed components, hardware designed and manufactured in Hillsboro.

The hardware cluster is just one piece of Apple's Oregon connection.

Every Mac on store shelves contains, at its core, a microprocessor devised by Intel research labs in Oregon.

And some of the most popular iPhone applications employ innovative software created by Portland developers for the popular device.

As Apple's ecosystem has grown, from the Mac to the iPod to the iPhone, the Silicon Valley company has borne fruit in Oregon's Silicon Forest.

Aside from its retail stores and a small team of software developers in downtown Vancouver, Apple itself has little presence in this region. Its growing role here reflects, instead, the broad acreage Apple occupies across the technology spectrum.

It also illustrates Oregon's increasingly diverse high-tech scene, which has expanded from its manufacturing roots to include more original design work and nimble software engineers who are seizing the opportunities Apple's products create.

Notoriously secretive, Apple imposes strict conditions on its partners. It's a hard company to do business with, because no one knows what Apple is planning in future products. And no company likes to be wholly dependent on another company's innovation for its own success.

For those who get in the door, though, Apple represents a potentially huge customer, a gold star on their resume and a jumping-off point for a broader set of technologies.

No one in Oregon has benefited more than TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., a Hillsboro company that makes components for the communications industry. Last year the company disclosed that a new client, Apple contract manufacturer Foxconn, was TriQuint's biggest customer in 2008.

TriQuint first appeared in the iPhone last July, when techies opened up the second-generation iPhone 3G and found TriQuint's gear inside. It was a major coup for TriQuint and won the company plaudits this spring from investing mavens Jim Cramer and TheStreet.com.

While TriQuint won't talk about its relationship with Apple -- or even confirm that Apple uses TriQuint chips -- Chief Executive Ralph Quinsey said the company has spent several years positioning itself to take advantage of faster cell phone networks and the smartphones they enable.

Before the iPhone, TriQuint had suffered years of steady decline. But even amid the recession, the Hillsboro company reported increased sales last year.