Intel cpus, and I was wondering whether this change is going to happen anytime soon or not.
Short answer: nobody here knows if or when it will happen. If you want wild mad guesses, read on...
The rumoured date is "starting in 2020" which I think came from an Intel report earlier this year (which might have been just Intel worst-casing as part of their due diligence). The waters are slightly muddied by the fact that most new Macs
do have at least one ARM chip - not as the main processor, but in the form of the T2 security/disc controller/etc chip, and that probably
will be in all Macs by sometime in 2020 (just the iMac to go, once the new Mac Pro comes out). Its possible (speculation) that a future version of the T2 could implement USB4 and thus replace Intel's Thunderbolt controller chips in Macs. Also, bear in mind, it would be strategically very good for Apple not to let Intel take them for granted...
I'm quite enthusiastic about the idea of an ARM Mac. However, my feeling is that the possibility receded this summer - first with the advent of "iPad OS" with more laptop-like features, it looks like they're throwing their weight behind the iPad as a serious alternative to the MacBook Air and lower-end MacBook Pros- but those would also be the obvious first machines to be replaced by an ARM MacBook and Apple don't usually like competing with themselves.
Second - they've announced a new Mac Pro which is very much designed around the Intel Xeon. If they announce a transition to ARM a few months after that actually launches (it still isn't available) then... well, that's really not a good look.
Also - they didn't announce ARM at WWDC which is primarily a
developers conference. An ARM Mac is going to require developers to
at least re-compile and test their Apps for ARM, and more complex apps with specific Intel dependencies will need more substantial changes. (I'm sure there will be some sort of emulation layer - but that's second best to a native App). My guess that any switch to ARM will be pre-announced at least 6 months in advance, along with some sort of developers-only prototype, just as happened with the PPC to Intel switch in 2005/2006.
An ARM Mac would also, probably, need to implement USB4 to replace Thunderbolt 3 and that's unlikely to happen in the next few months.
So, if you want my guess (and that's all it is) there will be another 'round' of x86 MacBook Pros before any switch to ARM. Also, remember,
the early worm gets the bird (a.k.a.
the second mouse gets the cheese). You might be
grateful to have one of the last generation of Intel Macs while the early adopters enjoy the teething troubles of ARM.
Just on timescale - the PPC-to Intel switch was announced at WWDC in June 2005 (with a prototype developers-only machine), the first Intel Macs went on sale at the start of 2006, the complete range was switched (ahead of schedule) by summer 2006.
However PPC was supported by the latest Mac OS until the release of OS X 10.6 three years later, and 10.5 received updates until about 2011. So if history repeats itself, an Intel Mac bought today, before any announcement of an ARM switch, should be good for 4-5 years. If history
doesn't repeat itself and Apple push the change faster then you'll probably wish you'd bought a PC...