Last time I was this hyped was three years ago ahead of the launch of Mac Pro 2013. My F5 key took a pounding for a couple of months until December 19, 2013 when the Apple Store finally made MPs available for order. My F5 key got worn down even more as I checked to see if my credit card had been charged and if it had shipped, and I finally received my Mac Pro on January 31, 2014. My F5 key was just a blob of plastic by that stage. Hoping for a much shorter timescale before I get my hands on a MBP 16!
It seems almost certain that the new Macs will be ARM-based. To bring the thoughts I have read and my own together:
(1) Apple has neglected to update its entire Mac line apart from the rMB when it could have very easily done so with Intel CPUs over the last couple of years.
(2) Touch ID is promoted as relying on a "secure enclave" which ARM CPUs have but Intel CPUs do not.
(3) Apple already describes ARM CPUs as "desktop class" and we know from the iPhone 7 that the Axx series now scales to four cores so could potentially scale much further.
(4) Switching to ARM enables Apple to decouple its launch windows going forward from Intel CPU releases, so as to avoid it been benchmarked against the PC industry generally and not face criticism for not updating its line at intervals essentially determined by Intel (the basis of this very thread on Macrumors!).
(5) Intel CPUs have improved negligibly over the last few years, whereas Axx CPUs have done so very radically, and without the need for active cooling.
(6) Reference to ARM CPUs was included in the public version of macOS Sierra as of a month ago (why do that now and indeed why change the name from OSX to macOS at this time?).
(7) Apple Store submissions are no longer CPU architecture dependent, so developers do not need to convert their code or rely on Rosetta 2.0.
(8) Switching to ARM inherently block x86 apps downloaded from outside the App Store which could contain malware.
(9) Folks who currently sell their Apps outside the App store could start selling them via the App Store to make them ARM compatible, so not necessarily a huge issue generally (of course there are exceptions).
(10) Could allow iOS Apps and Games to run natively (and sync with) your Mac, which could be quite fun and potentially allow a purchase of an App in the Apple store to be universal across iOS and macOS if Apple could be so charitable.
(11) Apple has never really cared about how well Windows runs in as VM or on bootcamp.
(12) ARM is more power efficient, enabling Apple to shrink the battery or further extend battery life.
(13) "Hello" in Apple parlance has traditionally accompanied a very significant change and none of the other rumored changes seem significant enough to me.
(14) There isn't a number 14.
Steve Job's "It's True" presentation announcing the switch from PowerPC to Intel is one of my favorites of all time (and I made the mistake of buying a PowerMac just half a year before, and I'm not making that mistake again!). I'm expecting something similar a week today and looking forward to it!
