And there sits pro users with $40k+ 7,1 MPs. Tell us how well that’s going to go over?
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Apple Expected to Announce Arm-Based Mac Plans at WWDC, Transition Away From Intel to Begin in 2021
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Macs have never been affordable....from day one. In the mid 80's i bought a USED mac IICX for $3700.00
In 82 a Mac 512K was almost $5K
This is a bold strategy for Apple. I hope it pays off for them.
I remember when everyone cried after the switch to Intel but this is an entirely new direction, one which will either take Apple to new heights or be the beginning of the end of the Apple we currently know.
I am sure the powers that be have thought this over tremendously and have been preparing for this transition for quite some time.
It appears they are finally ready to take the plunge.
Lets see what happens.
I remember when everyone cried after the switch to Intel but this is an entirely new direction, one which will either take Apple to new heights or be the beginning of the end of the Apple we currently know.
I am sure the powers that be have thought this over tremendously and have been preparing for this transition for quite some time.
It appears they are finally ready to take the plunge.
Lets see what happens.
With the advent of faster and faster iPads, I've been concerned of late that Apple has taken their eye off the Mac. Especially now the keyboard/trackpad, mouse support, and more desktop-like experience have started to be built around it. All I was waiting to see was that the ability to plug it into multiple 4k screens would see MacOS development just die. If this transition is going to happen, as it seems it is now, is this only going to be the low-end? If the reason is Intel's stagnation and inability to present sufficient next-gen performance each time a new update comes along, then at least iMacs and MacBook Pros are going to be in Apple's inventory for some time to come, surely. How much more power could there be to come out of these ARM chips compared to the Intel lineup, presuming that the only reason for changing over isn't just thermals. Are they scalable so that more and more cores can be added as time goes on?
I think you’ll be surprised in that case.
Transitioning Mac to Arm isn’t going to mean making different iPad form factors. It means releasing MacOS on computers that have Arm chips. It isn’t a Mac if it doesn’t run MacOS.
One of the differences could be that Tim Cook might be able to brag about the ARM based MacBook not needing a fan yet still over achieve Intel
I would rather see Mac's switch from Intel to AMD instead of ARM but I do understand that Apple is making CPU's/GPU's, so why not use them in everything. Apple would have better control and wouldn't have to wait for a 3rd party for chips, like they have been from Intel.
I am gonna buy i7 MBP soon-ish, whatever WWDC brings. I will let first ARM adopters smooth out the corners for the next 2-3 years, and see then. And looking how Apple is keeping Intel processors in 100℃ temperature range, I'm not expecting mine live a long life.
On the contrary, there were many people like me that switched to Mac from PC because they went Intel. Had Mac stayed on PPC, they would not be as successful as they are today especially in terms of reach.
Or this will be an opportunity for Apple to move away from the complicated iOS/iPadOS/watchOS/tvOS/macOS naming structure and make a single operating system for all their devices, named appleOS or something like that. The new appleOS would be scaleable, from the watch to the 27" iMac. The Mac portion of appleOS would retain its appearance and keep mouse support, etc., but things would be more unified. We've seen hints of this with Marizpan and iPadOS gaining new features, plus all OSes being updated at the same time. It'd be simpler and easier, IMHO.
I hope Apple realizes, Intel Macs released as early as this year can’t get just 2 more measly macOS updates and that’s it. During the Intel transition Leopard became the last PowerPC release; even though there turned out to be Snow Leopard PowerPC beta. I think they were still capable of at least 3 more universal releases considering how much G3 and G4 Macs still work to this day. They are almost appliance like.
Considering they have been supporting Macs as old as 2012 with macOS updates, a decent 5 years of support is the most respectable thing to do.
For those who splurged on a MacPro, they should get at least 10 more macOS updates, cause that’s not a computer you throw out after 5 years or even 10 years.
Anyway, I better start collecting them old Intel Macs. I certainly will be watching this closely to see if it’s viable upgrade or switch back to a Windows machine in the interim.
Considering they have been supporting Macs as old as 2012 with macOS updates, a decent 5 years of support is the most respectable thing to do.
For those who splurged on a MacPro, they should get at least 10 more macOS updates, cause that’s not a computer you throw out after 5 years or even 10 years.
Anyway, I better start collecting them old Intel Macs. I certainly will be watching this closely to see if it’s viable upgrade or switch back to a Windows machine in the interim.
It's just one of my theories. It would make sense to release souped-up iPad Pro as an ARM-based Mac, touch screen and all. It doesn't matter what they call it. iPad Pro, MacPad Pro - doesn't matter. It's all about the form factor and portability.
Apple have been positioning the iPad Pro as a Mac replacement for a while. They took a giant stride with iPadOS. They just need to refine iPadOS some more & greatly enhance the desktop experience and it's an ideal candidate as a replacement for macOS.
macOS development has been on a severe decline for years, so it just adds to my theory that is isn't the future OS for the Macs of the future.
That's a real tough one.
But will ultimately depend on your use case.
If you are using mostly Apple software (FinalCut, Pages, Numbers, Safari, Mail, etc.) then I think you will not have any issues as long as you always keep updating to the very latest version of every OS and software ("Auto Update").
Apple will likely keep the very latest macOS version available on Intel for years to come, including security updates.
But likely -only- the very latest macOS version.
So if you are using third-party software, or older software, this may prevent you from "Auto Updating" because any of those updates might break your software setup.
Then you would be stuck with an older macOS version which -could- see security updates to be stopped too. And sooner than you would want to.
Then you will be forced to update all your software and your whole setup to something that works on the very latest macOS version.
You might have to stop using beloved old software( e.g. Photoshop 6.0) and will have to switch your software to subscription models, making your computing setup likely more expensive too.
Now if it should come to that - that you have to update your whole software setup and replace many of your old software products with completely new ones - I think at that point you would be better off dumping your Intel Mac and going for something completely different.
Either an ARM Mac or a Linux or Windows machine.
It is that latter transition that will be the most painful.
If you foresee this coming, perhaps you should buy only a cheap Intel Mac now and factor in higher costs for an ARM machine sooner than you would normally upgrade your Mac. Meaning not in 4-5 years but in 2-3 years already.
There's also a benefit in employing non-commodity chips unavailable to Apple competitors, in that custom higher performance architectures/IP and secret sauce remain private to Apple. And no one else. That's huge!
It doesn't help that their brand new 10th generation still suffers from Meltdown and Spectre. Continuing to sell a defective product doesn't instill confidence in their product.
I'm fine with ARM so long as i can can run what i need. I got my first Mac in 2011 running 10.7 Lion, so i was really annoyed to find that i could not run any of the PowerPC apps as Apple had removed the Rosetta Engine which allowed OS X to run PowerPC apps seamlessly on Intel. Now i believe that was down to licensing rights, so as long as i can run 64 Bit Intel Apps natively i wont get annoyed. If in 5 years they remove the engine that allows that i will be very annoyed.
My very first Mac was a 1995 6100/66 which had both a Motorola RISC processor with System 7 as well as an Intel 486 processor running Windows '95. Quite honestly it was my favorite Mac of all times. Of course Apple will never do something crazy like that again.
If I recall, Steve said the Intel transition would take years but they ended up replacing the whole product line in 6 months. If Apple were still the nimble company they were 15 years ago, I'd say we would be seeing our first ARM Mac in September / October.
But, you know ...
Although come to think of it, I think part of Steve's assertion that would take years to transition away from PPC was to lessen the shock to a vocal community of Intel haters. A community Apple themselves fostered with the intel bashing 'toasted' commercials among others.
But, you know ...
Although come to think of it, I think part of Steve's assertion that would take years to transition away from PPC was to lessen the shock to a vocal community of Intel haters. A community Apple themselves fostered with the intel bashing 'toasted' commercials among others.
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It's not just Apple. I've been preparing for years to transition from Windows to Mac. 
But now, I'm wondering if my first purchase should be an iPad Pro this year followed by a MacBook Pro in a couple of years? Not the other way around as I was planning. And keep my Windows laptop for another couple of years until the MacBook Pro arrives.
All I ask for is Macs that don't operate under load at 100 degrees celcius.
But now, I'm wondering if my first purchase should be an iPad Pro this year followed by a MacBook Pro in a couple of years? Not the other way around as I was planning. And keep my Windows laptop for another couple of years until the MacBook Pro arrives.
All I ask for is Macs that don't operate under load at 100 degrees celcius.
Windows and Linux are all available for ARM architecture. Personally, I'm hopeful that this will pull Windows developers heads out of their behind and start supporting Windows or ARM better, finally. Right now it seems like the only major developer supporting WoA is Microsoft itself.
I don't know how to compare Intel chips against each other - there's no way the general public has any clue how to compare them. Switching to ARM will make things no more confusing than they already are.
Yea, just like everyone looked to the Zune for how well iPods were doing.Just look at how the Surface Pro X is doing