For years, rumors have swirled that Apple would soon release Macs that run on Apple-designed ARM processors (like the iPhone and iPad do) instead of Intel processors. I keep predicting it myself. It still hasn’t happened.
But this week, reliable Apple supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple plans on releasing a Mac with an Apple-designed processor in the first half of 2021. It’s a development that seemed highly unlikely to me a few years ago, but a lot has changed since then, starting with Apple’s attitude toward the Mac.
Apple gives the Mac a hug
In November 2016, when I wrote “Why Apple (probably) won’t make an ARM-powered Mac,” I expressed a great deal of optimism that Apple could take the Mac through a processor transition, as it has twice before. All the pieces were there. The real question, for me, was if Apple thought the Mac was worth the trouble.
Back then, it felt like Apple was entirely focused on the iPhone and the iPad, and that the Mac was being kept on life support as an old-school computer platform. If you’re putting the Mac out to pasture, why invest any effort in making a processor transition?
Read more at MacWorld.com