With Apple paying a little more attention to MacOS now that the transition to ARM is underway, details are being released about the new Mac hardware, and there are some interesting moves to come next year.
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 30: Tim Cook, Apple CEO presents a new MacBook Air during a launch event at … [+]
Extensive details on the updated hardware plans come from J Glenn Kunzler at SonnyDickson.com, and focus on the benefits of ARM:
“It’s like this: Even at this early stage, Apple already knows for sure that its existing A12Z chip (or a slightly modified modification of it) works brilliantly like a Mac Mini.” The first benchmarks we know of in their Developer Transition Kit already show impressive performance, even in Rosetta rather than natively on the machine. “
An expected change to the front of the house is the MacBook Air. Apple’s once revolutionary laptop will end with Intel.
Apple’s estrangement from Intel is driven by many small benefits, including closer integration between software and hardware. ARM has previously been viewed as a lack of growling by Intel. With Windows 10 in ARM with Microsoft’s Surface Pro X, it is clear that a pivot point has been reached, and the ARM architecture may match Intel’s preferred x86 platform.
And the initial benchmarking of Apple’s Mac Mini development kit with ARM technology shows that it outperforms the aforementioned Surface Pro X and offers performance similar to low and mid-range Intel hardware. Which puts the MacBook Air in focus on the cutter block.
Detail of a MacBook Air 2019 laptop, taken on July 23, 2019. (Photo by Phil Barker / Future … [+]
As many have noticed, the designs of the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air machines released earlier this year are incredibly similar. There are differences in terms of chipsets, so the MacBook Air has slightly less power compared to the more expensive Pro machine, but if you erase the names, Apple has its classic ‘good / better / better’ triplet with the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro with 8th generation Intel and MacBook Pro with 10th generation Intel.
Do you still need the ‘Air’ identifier? Kunzler once again:
… what we have heard, and that, once again, makes a lot of sense, is that Apple, in the future, will offer a single line of laptops, which will simply be called “The New MacBook”, or simply “MacBook” . “
The recent use of a standalone ‘MacBook’ in the MacOS range of laptops was for the lightweight, fanless eponymous computer, a retina display and smaller footprint for the MacBook Air. Now look again at those ARM advantages. Powerful chips suitable for a mid-range laptop … less cooling required … more efficient use of energy to extend battery life.
Check all the boxes. And from a business standpoint, Apple needs a strong statement of intent that MacOS and MacBook will thrive under the ARM brands. Leaving the ‘Air’ behind to represent Intel’s historic lightweight, and moving forward with the monolithic ‘MacBook’ for the future is the strong statement needed.
Now read how MacOS in ARM is driving Windows 10 forward …
.
