Kuo: Apple to Launch Several Macs With Arm-Based Processors in 2021, USB4 Support Coming to Macs in 2022

[09872738]

Instead of seeing a new ARM Mac lineup, I expect Apple to kill the entire lineup shortly after ARM Mac release outside of, you guessed it, Mac Pro. Why? Because iPadOS will BE the OS that Apple has envisioned for every macOS user. Catalina locks down a lot of things and catalyst project ports iPadOS apps to macOS. Apple wants Mac App Store to thrive but failed badly, as we all see. So, they are borrowing iOS App Store library to Mac. A12X is so powerful the synthetic benchmark has higher results than some mid range intel mobile CPU while generating much less heat. Why need to maintain a Mac lineup at all when iPadOS will do almost everything people do nowadays anyway?

Ming-Chi Kuo says ARM Mac in 2021. I’d boldly guess Mac lineup killed in 2025, when iPadOS completely replaces macOS.

I bet against this...

 

[Nütztjanix]

I bet against this...

Me too. Doesn't seem to be a realistic move.

 

[ikir]

Apple has a great experience doing this epic changes, they already did for 68k, PPC... I think it is pretty interesting, it will be harder than some user think, but much more easier than other here says. Let’s see.

 

[jdiamond]

So you will be running your software in emulation for at least 18 months - probably closer to 36.

That was the older, nicer Apple. You really think we'll get an emulator for older apps? I'd be thrilled to get such a compromise... I do remember running Power apps on Rosetta - and it generally worked.

Apple didn't give us an emulator for the 32-bit x86 Apps we depend upon, the ones that aren't being made anymore, the ones that were 32-bits just a few years ago because Apple convinced them to always compile their projects for 32-bits to support a single line of Macs from 2006... And why aren't they, when Mojave is clearly using such an emulator? Because they want to FORCE us to use new software. To Force us to use the new APIs. To give iOS cross developers a leg up.

You can't even use a VM like VMWare fusion, because they don't support the graphics APIs, so the apps simply crash. And their advice? Keep around an older Mac to run the Apps you love.

That being said, given that Catalina robbed me of almost all my software, the move to ARM will be less of a jump. Which I'm sure was the intent.

Software pain aside, I agree that Apple NEEDS to do this - all their laptops are underpowered and noisy at this point - it's just not Apple's engineering forte to deal with hot processors. But for this reason, Apple SHOULD make it possible to emulate old software - heck - if you have to, make it an online cloud service that runs your software on an older Mac and funnels the window back to your screen.

I think this has been a big deficit in Apple vs Windows for decades - Apple has never tried very hard to keep old software running, even when it was a simple independent app like Rosetta.
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iOS runs on ARM unless there is a version I am not familiar with, thus Office for iOS runs on ARM and with Catalyst getting the UX for macOS would not result in a year long refinement process hence Catalyst exists to permit developers universal apps. Adobe has always dragged its heels when it came to macOS transitioning from PPC to x86 and then porting it to iOS. But most have already transitioned to Affinity Photo and other comparable editors. The writing was on the wall for years, don’t like it move along. Adobe has made its library bloatware similar to previous versions of Office. I am glad these companies are being forced to optimize they software code as they were not motivated in the past.

I think this might hit at a larger truth. Apple always hoped the incredible success of iOS would lead to a lot more Mac software ports. And it didn't really happen that way. Now they're pushing easier cross development - maybe a second attempt to make MaciOS the largest OS in the world by users? There's definitely more iOS users than Windows users out there.

 

[chucker23n1]

This is all quite off-topic, but…

That was the older, nicer Apple. You really think we'll get an emulator for older apps? I'd be thrilled to get such a compromise... I do remember running Power apps on Rosetta - and it generally worked.

Apple didn't give us an emulator for the 32-bit x86 Apps we depend upon,

Rosetta was available between 2006 (Tiger on Intel) and 2011 (pre-Lion). That was basically the transition phase. For 32-bit x86? There were ten years for third parties to get their act together and compile for 64-bit.

I know we're losing some software along the way, and it sucks, but it's not like Apple suddenly made a cut-off. 64-bit x86 existed in Snow Leopard in 2009, and 32-bit x86 was removed in Catalina in 2019.

And why aren't they, when Mojave is clearly using such an emulator?

No emulator.

Apple doesn't want to maintain the 32-bit runtime any more, because in general, that comes with overhead, and in this particular case, there were backwards compatibility concerns that meant they could never resolve some issues with it. Moving to 64-bit gave you a much newer runtime for free.

Because they want to FORCE us to use new software. To Force us to use the new APIs. To give iOS cross developers a leg up.

This has nothing to do with iOS at all, but yes, generally speaking, a framework vendor wants third parties to use newer versions. Not doing so is an engineering nightmare.

We can quibble over details like whether Apple should be able to handle it, given their amount of money, or whether they should be shipping an emulator. But I don't think the general idea that old stuff needs to be deprecated at some point should be up for debate. It's how engineering works.

You can't even use a VM like VMWare fusion, because they don't support the graphics APIs, so the apps simply crash. And their advice? Keep around an older Mac to run the Apps you love.

I think it would've been nice of Apple to provide a VM of their own, but it's not their fault if VMware doesn't work well for this job.

I think this has been a big deficit in Apple vs Windows for decades - Apple has never tried very hard to keep old software running, even when it was a simple independent app like Rosetta.

Microsoft sometimes screws this up as well. Windows Phone 8 phones couldn't run Windows Phone 7 apps. Windows 10 Mobile phones couldn't run Windows Phone 8 apps. Windows RT tablets couldn't run any x86 apps. Windows on ARM laptops can't run 64-bit x86 apps, only 32-bit (which is funny, given that it seemed for many years that 32-bit was going away).

 

[TheHurryKayne]

We had Lynux and Word , so no Windows 10 and Windows 10 is not just Word.This really sucks.
Lots of Mac being sold still with Intel now to be left in next 2 years in the dust.
Think that incredibly great MAC PRO or the last MacBook 16 with that new GPU , already old and dead.
And what then the A12z running Big Sur..so will be possible to have it on the Ipad pro..? No that is Ipad OS not Mac os which is running on 12z ...wow.. .

 

[Nütztjanix]

We had Lynux and Word , so no Windows 10 and Windows 10 is not just Word.This really sucks.
Lots of Mac being sold still with Intel now to be left in next 2 years in the dust.
Think that incredibly great MAC PRO or the last MacBook 16 with that new GPU , already old and dead.
And what then the A12z running Big Sur..so will be possible to have it on the Ipad pro..? No that is Ipad OS not Mac os which is running on 12z ...wow.. .

I'm not quite sure I get what you want to say …?

 

[cmaier]

We had Lynux and Word , so no Windows 10 and Windows 10 is not just Word.This really sucks.
Lots of Mac being sold still with Intel now to be left in next 2 years in the dust.
Think that incredibly great MAC PRO or the last MacBook 16 with that new GPU , already old and dead.
And what then the A12z running Big Sur..so will be possible to have it on the Ipad pro..? No that is Ipad OS not Mac os which is running on 12z ...wow.. .

Welcome to computing. This year’s best machine is left in the dust in a handful of years.