Apple confirm worst kept secret

The switch to Apple's own ARM based chipset is confirmed and Intel chips will be dropped over the next 2 years. people have been touting this move since 2018 and even beyond as the A-series chips proved more and more powerful.

One day - there will be a 21 or even 27 inch iMac with ARM chips and hopefully..... pencil 2 support.

 

It gets even better....

Apple has confirmed that all iOS apps will run natively on these Arm Based Macs. That is really the most major part of this announcement.

Being able to use iOS apps will more then make up for the 2-year transition of app compatibility issues. This a key advantage Microsoft did not have with WOA. There is no way this won't be a runaway success....Microsoft and Intel are def not happy campers today.

 

Pretty good news - however Intel have had 2-3 years warning this was coming. Ryzen chips are kicking Intel butt left right and centre too.

I hadn't seen the benefit of the massive stock of iOS Apps on the App store but you're right - this will hopefully also force Apple to support pen and touch too as most of the best iOS Apps are touch centric.......

 

I don't see Windows users suddenly exiting in droves to run mere apps on a notebook. Remember Windows 8? To the contrary, STEM academic departments will likely no longer be buying or recommending Apple here on out. Revelation: you can't run an X86 hypervisor or VM on an ARM processor. Ouch and double ouch.

This sounds more like a something the Apple diehards will lap up. But the cool kids who bought Apple computers only to install Windows on it or the fashionista devs who used Macs to run serious applications on are likely leaving, not running to buy into this, with this news. I don't foresee this playing out well for Intel or Apple. Adiós, Apple.

 

As I feared, WOA already a second-class citizen for ARM-native desktop development...



@4:49 Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop ARM builds ready for MOA...with WOA/SPX already a lost memory.

And you can bet all the developers now are going to prioritize MacOS optimization and iOS cross-platform features while WOA, just like Android before it, gets brushed aside.

*Cries into bento bowl*

 

As far as integrating touch/pencil compatibility....I almost don't want to jinx that just yet. Touch functionality they could still work in via the trackpad....but I could see Apple playing it safe for the first gen. Touch/Pen would really require a refactoring of the macbook form factor into a 2-in-1....as much as that would be ideal, I could really see Apple resurrecting the regular Macbook (non Air, non Pro) to use for this, and it would look like the old regular macbook, but with ARM under the hood. I think a re-design would be more likely down the line once its more perfected. And I also don't think they would want a Mac Arm to cannibalize iPad sales. To give it all the functionally of the iPad would make the iPad somewhat redundant.

The initial benefit of the iOS apps is to give people options until 3rd party mac software ports over. Like for example, if you use Clip Studio, the Surface Pro X is sort of a no-go. Clip Studio on WOA doesn't exist and allegedly Clip Studio runs very poorly in the emulation mode. For Mac on Arms however....even if Clip Studio for Mac on Arms doesn't outright come out right away, you would be able to use the iOS build of Clip Studio. Its instances like this that will give an Arm Mac a tremendous advantage over Windows on Arm. The only hope I think Windows on Arm has at this point, is if Microsoft grovels to Google to allow WOA to run apps from the google play store.

 

wow, we are like night and day on this topic. The problem with Windows 8, 10, and ARM is that dedicated App Support is minuscule to non-existent. No one ran out in droves for a handful of medicore windows apps, but given how many people have adopted iPads and outright use them as laptops, and given how vast the iOS app selection is, I'd bet the contrary in this case.

Now as far as VM's or running Windows on such a Mac......what about Windows on Arm? Technically that should be a possible. Man wouldn't that be a kick in the pants to Microsoft if all their efforts to grow Windows on Arm only became possible by Apple.

 

This also means huge Linux-on-ARM adoption because now millions of people will have an ARM personal computer. Eventually we'll see ARM servers. Finally we're moving away from the spaghetti hardware that is x86.

 

According to Paul Thurrott, ARM emulation for X86 64 bits is on its way for WOA:

https://www.thurrott.com/hardware/235223/windows-10-on-arm-to-support-64-bit-x86-apps

As for Apple, in their WWDC conference, they announced Rosetta 2 to emulate X86 code
(https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/22/apple-confirms-mac-transition-to-arm-cpus/)

Rosetta was the name of their original PowerPC/X86 emulator; Don't know if they are Advanced in this developpement and who will be the first to have a quality X64 emulator.

 

In the video provided by Marty just above, Rosetta 2 seems to perform well already; It would be interesting to find out if this emulation is efficient today...