I’ve also determined if the 2013 27” goes kaput before AS Macs are released, I will also purchase an intel MBP 13” as a stopgap. I am glad we have options. Frankly, I have no idea what to expect but that is fine.
Honestly, that's a solid plan. The 2020 Intel 4-Port 13" MacBook Pro is my next Mac purchase (I'll probably get whatever Apple Silicon equivalent will exist to this machine some two to three years down the road and use both in tandem until Apple stops supporting Intel (in which case, it becomes a Windows 10 PC). My Mac platform dependency has dwindled substantially in the past five years (and Apple's macOS quality control track record since Mountain Lion hasn't exactly had me jazzed about being dependent on it at all, sadly).
If as Tim Cook said the Apple Silicon transition will happen in the next two years surely Apple must have been working on these new Macs for at least two or three years now. I believe this latest iMac refresh is the end of the intel Macs. Would be great to see a 24 Apple Silicon iMac by the end of this year.
I wouldn't be shocked to see one more Intel 16" MacBook Pro and maybe even one last Intel Mac Pro. But as far as literally every other Mac they currently sell is concerned, I 100% agree. We've seen the last Intel launches for all of those.
Oh yeah, that was just exemplary, I'm not sure what they will do as such, it sounds like we will start off with direct equivalents of each Intel machine to begin with, but there's swirling rumours for a few different form factors! I quite like the idea of the Air line being a revived 12" MacBook (with slightly larger 12.5" display or so via reduced bezels) and a 14.1" model, then the 14.1" and 16" MacBook Pros, but it sounds like the 13" Pro is sticking around for a while yet.
I just got a 12" MacBook off of eBay. Crap butterfly keyboard totally aside, the thing is not comfortable to use when not at a desk. The keyboard goes to the edge of the laptop and it makes it a bit awkward to type on when not used on a flat surface. I'm not sure what the obsession is. 13" is much better size.
And yeah, it does seem like the 13" Pro (or at least some other 13" Mac notebook is sticking around, given the rumor mill).
Nothing surprising here really. We knew it was coming from leaked benchmarks but could have predicted what would be in it in terms of 10th gen, T2 etc. Maybe not the exact GPU options but certainly ballpark.
Again, the most surprising elements revolve around what Apple DIDN'T announce. You're right, the 27" iMac got updated as was anticipated. That said, I'm not sure that anyone anticipated that the 21.5" iMac would get left out. That hasn't really ever happened in the history of the 21.5" and 27" iMac pairing.
This is one of the best written posts I’ve seen on these forums in looong time ! THANK YOU!
Many thanks man!
Why is everyone assuming we will get a 13” MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon? Rumors have consistently claimed it will have a 14” screen.
Rumors have claimed that we're getting the 14" screened Mac laptop in 2021 and that a 13" Apple Silicon laptop will launch this year beforehand.
I think, there is still a chance that they will update 16" MacBook Pro with Intel 10 gen "H" processors this fall.
Honestly, I completely agree with you here and I forgot to include that here. I do think that we're gonna get one last Intel 16" MacBook Pro release. I don't expect it to be substantial (we're certainly not likely to get a GPU bump seeing as we're already using AMD's latest). Just 10th Gen and MAYBE the nano-texture display option. They very well could include Wi-Fi 6/802.11ax, but I have a feeling Apple is going to stick with Wi-Fi 5/802.11ac until they jump to Apple Silicon.
I also think we might be in store for one final Intel Mac Pro release, but it likely won't be anything too substantial compared to the 2019 model. Are there even newer Xeon chips suitable for the Mac Pro than what's already in it?
While you looked at this from hardware justification aspects, I think the toughest problem will be Apple trying to convince consumer/businesses, that there is a compelling reason for this transition from a software side. Great marketing doesn't magically create lots of native software. If it can't run all the non-native consumers software that's used now, or use some driver within Rosetta 2 for the consumer/business peripherals, that won't create any love for Apple Silicon Macs.
I think that any developer with a current 64-bit Intel binary will either (a) have that binary work fine under Rosetta 2 and/or (b) be commited enough to the platform to have a universal binary (x86-64 + ARM64) in progress. The only developers that I might worry about are the companies that have specialized in porting Windows/console games to macOS (Aspyr, Feral Interactive, etc.). The Culliing of Catalina (dropping of 32-bit app support) was brutal and a lot of titles that were previously fine in Mojave and earlier were outright discontinued in Catalina. All that to say that if any Mac app survived the jump to Catalina, they're very likely to also survive the jump to Apple Silicon and, at the very least, run fine under Rosetta 2.
Excellent article, thank you!
No, thank you!
Given the need for Parallels and/or Bootcamp in some of my workflows I’ll be ignoring Apple Silicon for as long as I can, or until I can see those tools running an least as quickly as they do on my current gear but under Intel emulation.
I'm more or less with you on this. The ability to virtualize x86 natively is huge for me. Not just for running popular x86 Linux distros that don't yet have an ARM port (looking at you, Ubuntu!), but also Windows, Windows Server, and even Intel versions of macOS. Being able to run VMs of Mojave and even as far back as Snow Leopard will be quite useful. Plus, once Apple drops Intel from future macOS releases, my Intel Macs can still live on as Windows/Linux boxes! I'm planning on getting a 2020 Intel 4-port 13" MacBook Pro and then, 2-3 years down the road, getting an Apple Silicon equivalent machine and using both side by side until the former loses support from Apple. Then again, my dependency on the Mac platform is not what it used to be. Windows, iOS, and iPadOS cover 95% of my needs nowadays...
Conspiracy theory: Apple didn’t put a heat pipe in the MacBook air 2020 to contrast the thermal performance to the new silicon macs, possibly in the same chassis. it will be a huge selling point.
Heh...I am not sure about them doing that particular thing deliberately...but certainly, the 2018, 2019, and 2020 MacBook Airs using Intel's Y-series processors (and even the 12" MacBooks doing it beforehand) seem to basically be a built-in seller to this transition. The MacBook Airs have always been a touch under-powered in favor of ultraportability; Apple definitely wants a MacBook Air that doesn't have to make that kind of a compromise. And an Apple Silicon 13" notebook will be that notebook.
