Apple is to phase out Intel CPUs in favor of its own ARM-based chips, it announced yesterday at the WWDC trade show in California.
ARM designs are more energy-efficient and Apple has shown they can deliver performance with recent models of the iPad Pro, which already uses the company’s silicon.
The big challenge will be software, reports the BBC. Apple demonstrated popular apps and a new version of its MacOS operating system at the event, but apps made for current hardware will not run natively.
Apple said it had already developed native versions of several of its own apps, including Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro. iPhone and iPad apps will also be able to be run on the computers.
Apple said that Microsoft was working on an optimised version of Office, and Adobe was developing a version of Photoshop.
Other developers should be able to recompile their apps to get a version running “in just a matter of days,” said the company’s software chief Craig Federighi. He added that old apps would automatically be translated at point of installation to run, although they would not work as well.
I’m eager to see one of these new models. I love how fast, responsive and straightforward my iPad Pro feels, but iPadOS’s sandboxed apps make it so difficult to establish a functional file management workflow that I’ve never been able to use it as a workhorse.
On the other hand, MacOS on new hardware will still be MacOS, won’t it? Will I even notice the difference?