At the 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference starting today, Apple will reportedly unveil its long-awaited transition from Intel to ARM processors for Macbooks.
Famous analyst Ming-chi Kuo has issued a long report of his predictions regarding the transition. He believes the whole process will take about 12 to 18 months, and the new machines will outperform their Intel predecessors by 50 to 100 percent.
Kuo predicts that the last Intel-powered Mac will be a new iMac design with a 24-inch display and thinner bezels. This machine is allegedly planned for a release in Q3 2020. Meanwhile, the ARM version will follow it in the first quarter of next year.
Other than this, the first ARM Mac will most probably be a 13-inch MacBook Pro which will be released in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021. As per Kuo’s report, the laptop will feature a form factor similar to the current MacBook model. For MacBooks, production of the Intel version will reportedly cease once the ARM model is introduced. Although, there’s no confirmation on whether the same holds for iMac or not.
This is somewhat similar to what we saw in 2005 when Apple moved from PowerPC processors to Intel for performance reasons. Following the announcement, the company released its first Intel-based Macs in 2006.
In other news, Apple will not show off the actual ARM-based consumer Mac hardware at the event. Instead, test hardware will be made available to developers so that software can be adapted to run on ARM processors in time for the computers’ launch.
