Update from July 16 below, post originally posted on July 17.
The news that Apple was moving from Intel to ARM was one of the expected highlights of the 2020 World Developers Conference. What was not expected was the speed of the transition, with Tim Cook’s ambitions for the range. Mac running ARM in two years.
And the unexpected highlight? We might see the first MacBook Pro with ARM sooner than we thought.
Philip “Phil” Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Apple Inc., shows the … [+]
Update July 17: One of the problems to move to ARM is third-party applications. Tim Cook may have said the transition will be completed in two years, but Apple’s own development environment will help bridge the application gap. There is a legion of iPhone developers that Apple could leverage to overload the app library on MacOS. Chaim Gartenberg discusses the potential:
“All apps already running on iOS will work natively on new Macs, which means there will be a lot of software ready for day one. Bessey also speculates that uniting the platforms could see an explosion of new Apps from Macs that are universal on iOS, iPad, and macOS. Where developers may not have had an incentive to create a native Mac app before, the new ARM-based architecture means it will be much easier to expand iPhone and iPad apps to the desktop platform. “
From the latest MacOS updates it is clear that Apple is bringing the flavor of iOS and iPadOS to desktop machines, but there is still a functionality gap between phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. That’s a gap that can be closed quickly when ARM devices go on sale and developers see their new market.
SHANGHAI, CHINA – 2020/01/12: The Apple logo of the American multinational technology company is seen on a screen … [+]
The latest supply chain news points to a manufacturing schedule that makes a vacation launch a racing certainty. Jacob Siegel reports:
“Apple showed a Mac that runs on its custom silicon during live streaming, but was not ready to close the curtain on specific products that would include hardware. We don’t know which Mac will be the first to use Apple’s Silicon, but a report DigiTimes suggests that at least two Apple silicon laptops will ship in 2020.
“The report states that Taiwan’s supply chain will begin shipping parts and components for next-generation MacBook and iPad units in the third quarter of this year before multiple new product launches.”
Shipment of parts in the third quarter of the year suggests that Apple will build up inventory for a fourth-quarter release to the public.
Given the importance of MacOS in ARM at WWDC, it is unlikely but not impossible that it will play the second string of the iPhone 12 during the traditional September launch.
That leaves the almost regular space of late October. This has previously been the domain of the iPad family, but in recent years the tablets have moved to March. An October event would see the first MacBook Pro with ARM in the limelight before going on sale in time for Christmas.
Interestingly, this could make the iPhone 12 the second chain in October. Tim Cook and his team would not miss the opportunity to promote sales and user satisfaction rates for the new smartphone. And I can see a script that includes “if the iPhone was revolutionary … let me introduce our new MacBook”.
Now read how Apple’s move to ARM will influence Windows 10 in ARM development …
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