We called it earlier this week saying Apple is likely to move Macs to their own ARM based processors, Well Apple have announced Macs will be available with ‘Apple Silicon’ from late 2020.
So, what does it mean for you if you have just bought a Summer 2020 Mac? Very little in all fairness as we discussed in the article earlier this week Intel Macs will still be relevant for most of the 2020’s the final death nail will probably be App developers no longer supporting Intel processors much like the transition from PowerPC to Intel back in 2006.
At the WWDC Apple made all the Mac presentations on their own ARM processors which Apple are calling ‘Apple Silicon’. In these presentations we saw the new ARM based chips running Linux and Windows 10 in Virtual Machines.
Indeed, the Microsoft Surface Pro X runs on an ARM based processor already so we know Windows already supports ARM processors so boot camping or running Windows in a VM will still be possible.
Apple has announced Rosetta 2 which will allow Intel Apps to run on the new Apple Silicon for several years to come. We don’t expect the last Intel Mac to ship until sometime in 2022 if not later depending on how the Apple Silicon & Intel chips progress in the next 2 years.
Already if you are a registered Apple Developer you can apply to purchase a Mac Mini with Apple Silicon , for everyone else expect an announcement from Apple this fall with a Mac line up running on Apple’s new ARM processors.
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Summary
Apple is transitioning Macs to their own ARM-based processors, but Intel Macs will still be relevant for most of the 2020's.
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