It has been touted for several years that Apple may start using ARM processors in their Mac line up. However, in recent months with AMD releasing more and more powerful Ryzen processors pundits have been guessing Apple will announce an ARM based Mac at the upcoming Apple WWDC.
What could this mean for us Mac users and should you hold off on buying a new Mac?
Well only 15 years ago Apple successfully moved their desktop Mac line up from PowerPC processors to intel. This was done because Intel based x86 processors were more powerful & energy efficient than the PowerPC alternatives and staying with PowerPC was going to hurt the Mac line up.
The transition from PowerPC to Intel x86 chips such as the Core 2 Duo was a fairly seamless experience for most users with Apple introducing Rosetta which allowed your PowerPC based apps to run on your intel Mac up until MacOS Snow Leopard. Or if you stuck with Leopard it was / is possible to keep running PowerPC based apps.
Apple moving to its own ARM based chips which already power your iPads and iPhones may allow Apple to reduce the cost of each Mac or provide more features for the same money. With AMD launching the Thread Ripper series of processors it would also allow more powerful Macs to be released.
In the short term I would imagine if Apple were to release an ARM based Mac it would be on its own chip and be either a MacBook or a MacBook Air the MacBook Pro & MacPro would more likely still come with an Intel processor as standard for several years to come.
With that said if you’re thinking of buying a Mac that isn’t one of the base models waiting for an ARM version wouldn’t be worth it, even if Apple does introduce an ARM based Mac they will still continue to support Intel based Macs for years to come just as they did with PowerPC based Macs.
Apple may even continue to produce Intel based Macs at the same time as ARM based Macs, using their own processors in certain Macs would allow them to save money on the production cost for certain models.
Obviously, this is all speculation, but with so many people now betting on Apple releasing an ARM based Mac I wouldn’t be surprised to see one. It also makes sense for Apple as they make a lot of their own hardware so why not the CPU for some or all of their desktops.
Stay tuned as we’ll cover any significant items to come from the virtual WWDC later this month.
AI Usage Transparency Report
Pre-AI Era · Written before widespread use of generative AI tools
AI Signal Composition
Score: 0.03 · Low AI Influence
Summary
Apple may start using ARM processors in their Mac line up, potentially reducing costs or increasing features.
Related Posts
AI Agent Constraints and Security
I really feel like in this era of AI it's essential to write about and share experiences for others who are leveraging AI, especially now that AI usage seems almost ubiquitous. Specifically, when it comes to AI in development and the rapid growth of AI-driven automations in the IT landscape, I believe there's a need for open discussion and exploration.
ABM Warranty 0.4.1
The 0.4.x release series for ABM Warranty is focused on operational scale. The earlier 0.3 releases were about trust, correctness, and stabilizing the foundation. Version 0.4.1 builds directly on that work by making the app more practical for consultants, internal IT teams, and managed service providers who need to support multiple environments without losing isolation, control, or visibility. This includes improvements to user interface and workflow, as well as enhanced reporting capabilities to help these users manage their workflows more efficiently.
Vibe Coding with Codex: From Fun to Frustration
So there I was, a typically day, a typical weekend. As a ChatGPT customer, I had heard good things about Codex and had not yet tried the platform. To date my experience with agentic coding was simply snippit based support with ChatGPT and Gemeni where I would ask questions, get explanations and support with squashing bugs in a few apps that I work on, for fun, on the side. There were a few core features in one of the apps I built that I wanted to try implementing but the...
The warranty dashboard Apple doesn’t provide… yet
Download ABM Warranty
Why Apple Fleet Risk Isn’t a Security Problem—Until It Is
Security and risk are often treated as interchangeable concepts in modern IT environments, but they are not the same discipline. Security focuses on controls, enforcement, and prevention. Risk management, by contrast, is concerned with likelihood, impact, and consequence across operational, financial, and organizational domains. Frameworks such as those published by NIST make this distinction explicit: risk assessment is not a technical exercise, but a business one. Technology informs risk decisions, but it does not define them.
ABM Warranty 0.3.1
The 0.3.x release series for ABM Warranty is about tightening guarantees. Where earlier releases focused on surfacing data and making long-running operations observable, 0.3.x focuses on ensuring that what you see is complete, consistent, and safe to trust—particularly as the app is used in larger, slower, and more varied environments. This shift in focus aims to provide a more reliable foundation for users who require higher levels of assurance from their warranty management system.
ABM Warranty 0.2.0
ABM Warranty 0.2.0 is a feature release focused on visibility, safety, and scale. This version does not change what ABM Warranty is meant to be, but it significantly improves how the app behaves under real-world conditions—large device counts, API throttling, long-running imports, and the kinds of failure modes Apple IT admins actually encounter. The improvements in this release are designed to make the app more reliable and efficient, allowing it to handle complex scenarios without breaking or becoming unresponsive.
Running a Beta Program: Lessons Learned
Shipping software in isolation is comforting. You control the inputs, the environment, and the narrative you tell yourself about how things work. The moment you invite other people in—especially people who don’t share your assumptions—you lose that comfort. You also gain something far more valuable. Running a public beta for ABM Warranty through Apple’s TestFlight program forced me to confront that tradeoff head-on, and it fundamentally changed how quickly and confidently the app matured.
The Day I Unmanaged a Mac Into a Corner
There are a few kinds of mistakes you make as a Mac admin. There are the ones that cost you time, the ones that cost you sleep, and then there are the ones that leave you staring at a perfectly good laptop thinking, “How did I possibly make this *less* manageable by touching it?” These mistakes often stem from a lack of understanding or experience with macOS, but they can also be the result of rushing through tasks or not taking the time to properly plan and test.
Introducing ABM Warranty for macOS
If you manage Apple devices at scale, you already know that **Apple Business Manager (ABM)** provides warranty data — but in practice, it’s extremely limited. It doesn’t provide workflow-friendly insights, it doesn’t surface actionable coverage states, and it doesn’t help you wrangle the ever-growing complexity of **AppleCare+ renewals** across hundreds or thousands of devices. This lack of comprehensive information can lead to missed renewal deadlines, unnecessary costs, and a higher risk of device downtime due to expired warranties.
