I'm wondering if Apple will be updating their intel hardware anymore. Who will buy a new intel Mac knowing it will be outdated in maybe less then 2 years? Apple used to have rather long transition periods in the past. But how long will they this time support two quite different platforms at massive extra costs. So 3-4 years could be a realistic lifespan for newly bought intel Macs. For companies (depreciation) still "feasible" but for private consumers not very interesting. So will we enter a periode without Mac updates?
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Apple Plans to Ditch Intel and Use Custom Mac Chips Starting in 2020
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Mobile touch apps != mouse-and-keyboard desktop software.
It's like comparing a car to a spaceship. Horses for courses.
What dev would develop for a few tens of millions of users (almost none of whom are in enterprise) when they could develop for a billion Windows users.
Devs only have so many hours in a day and they need to pay bills. The math is pretty simple and that's why Mac software is a relative ghost town.
This move is salt in the wound for their already tiny development community.
Their sales will plummet. Just in time for the New New Mac Pro to do a swan dive into 4 foot thick concrete. *BOOM*
If you get a Mac your getting it to run macOS the #1 UNIX not clunky Windows NT based OS, with the processing power the instructions set of the x64 and x86 could be translated in real-time or close as they bring back Rosetta like when users still ran PowerPC code on Intel
They could also have s chip to translate intel instructions to arm in real-time, after all the AMD uses different instructions to Intel the AMD converts them to AMD then executes them with zero loss of performance
Apple doesn't suffer for iOS developers. Whatever they develop to run on ARM for Mac isn't going to be iOS, but certainly iOS like. Don't you think those iOS developers will want to test the Mac market?
Can't wait! Now we'll have computer processors that get noticably more powerful with each years update, just like the A-series chips in the iPhone, instead of just receiving tiny speed bumps like we currently get from Intel (and AMD).
They will be able to hopefully also avoid the design issues that cause Intel/AMD to be affected by Meltdown/Spectre, they will draw less power which will be especially useful in the laptops to help extend battery life.
They can add in features like the secure enclave, different types of co-processors, etc.. right into the processor just like in the iPhone.
The best thing of all though, since I am 98% sure it is most likely going to be an ARM processor, this means that we will now be able to have those "Universal Apps" that were rumored about a little while ago, allowing Apple to merge the App Store and the Mac App Store together and allowing us to run our Mac apps on iOS and vice versa!
They will be able to hopefully also avoid the design issues that cause Intel/AMD to be affected by Meltdown/Spectre, they will draw less power which will be especially useful in the laptops to help extend battery life.
They can add in features like the secure enclave, different types of co-processors, etc.. right into the processor just like in the iPhone.
The best thing of all though, since I am 98% sure it is most likely going to be an ARM processor, this means that we will now be able to have those "Universal Apps" that were rumored about a little while ago, allowing Apple to merge the App Store and the Mac App Store together and allowing us to run our Mac apps on iOS and vice versa!
Dude, that was incredible. If I could up-vote you twice, I would. I actually did laugh *out loud* for real over that. Haha!
Depends on your perspective. If you need Apple's current level of software support for your needs, you'll want to get an Intel Mac before they become unavailable. I suppose you can move to Windows, but you can phase Apple out with an Intel Mac by installing Windows or Linux and have a dual boot setup for that transition. I'd have to believe there will be an in-between answer to all this that can't be fleshed out with one rumor that pretty much every tech reporter is running with. Can't wait to see what Apple says as they get pressured for a response.
Here: https://www.macrumors.com/2017/09/13/a11-bionic-chip-geekbench-scores/
I don't know if synthetic benchmarks are the end all be all, but they are a useful measurement.
Apple's ARM chips are plenty fast for MOST laptop users today. How much faster do you think they'll be in two years?
Indeed, my first thought as well, i just remember the nightmare of transition...
Hope this isn’t a “Scully moment”!
They will need to cause this put my plan to by a new Mac this year on hold and for my company.....
I'm throwing my hands up. Either I'm not conveying my point well, you're not getting it or you're intentionally not addressing the fact that iOS developers, who are legion and develop for ARM devices, might salivate at a whole new Apple market to develop for. I'm not referring to making Candy Crush ports. I'm talking about using their experience on iOS to make desktop apps on whatever Apple transitions to using ARM.
Only a bit more than trivial. I’m a Developer (iOS, Mac, and Linux), and I’ve done it. macOS is iOS (very similar OS kernels) without the security sandbox, but with a mouse GUI and desktop layered on top instead. My port mostly just added mouse, menu, and non-sandboxed file system access support, and swapped in a new storyboard. The hard part for me was doing higher resolution icons.
Not true at all.
There has been every flavour and combo of ARM Windows for mobile and desktop since 2012, and neither consumers nor IT departments were enticed.
Had anyone anywhere bought the hardware, dozens more variations would have shipped.
Instead it died on the table.
The latest attempt to revive it is an emulation layer. Might help, might not.
This is not a success story in the technology world.
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Exactly. Make "iOS for the desktop" and then draw in iOS devs.
Mac OS RIP.
This is what essentially tanked blackberry
“Guys we’re building a whole new os, completely incompatible with what you have today... it’ll be out in 2 years, but keep buying the stuff we’re selling I. The meantime!”
Hint. People stopped buying, and went to the competition who had stuff ready.
I agree with you there.
But an iOS dev is not going to make the next SAP or Solidworks.
OSX as we know it is dead; this is more than just an architecture change.
We just disagree--I don't think it would be Mac OS RIP. But maybe. I think we'll find out.
Yeah, I was replying to the OP on that. Windows on ARM might have been a thing all this time, but only at MS HQ. The original OS, Windows RT, never transitioned to Windows 10. It wasn't until recently did MS revive the "desktop" version of WOA. W10M was a total disaster, and was the "beginning of the end" with me and MS.
EXACTLY.
Now Blackberry makes software for cars and jet fighters. Because the BB platform died when they tried to force a tiny but loyal group of devs to discard most of their work and start again.
As Steve Jobs once said, the devs told them to pound sand.
I would argue that is not what tanked Blackberry. Not at all.
Oh all the drama - It's a cpu switch. You know there were times when nearly every computer system had a different cpu and we still could work...