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When will the first ARM Mac be released?


  • Total voters
    125

Caliber26

macrumors 68020
Sep 25, 2009
2,327
3,657
Orlando, FL
I’m voting November only because the iPhones are rumored to be delayed a bit due to the pandemic. I think iPhones first then the new Macs.

Or they could just do one massive keynote and introduce new phones, new watches, new Macs, and maybe even new iPads and everyone in this forum will have a collective orgasm.
 

Dhock_Holiday

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2019
191
203
I can see ARM devices being pushed closer to November or December, Foxconn has resumed production and will likely want to prioritize iPhone 12 manufacturing for a September release date.
 

JPack

macrumors G5
Mar 27, 2017
13,535
26,158
I can see ARM devices being pushed closer to November or December, Foxconn has resumed production and will likely want to prioritize iPhone 12 manufacturing for a September release date.

Manufacturing returned to normal between late February and early March.

Besides, Quanta makes the Mac, not Foxconn.
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What do you think?

The mainstream, non-mmWave 6.1" and 5.4" iPhones will probably be September, while the 6.7" will be October.

In terms of Mac, October is most likely after the iPhone fanfare in September.
 

jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
I'm assuming that the first Apple Silicon Macs will be on the consumer side and that means Apple needs to have them out before the end of November for the holiday shopping season. Sometimes it takes time for the supply chain to catch up with demand so releasing mid to late October is ideal. Of course that depends on Apple actually being ready but they've had such a head start on this transition that I'm guessing would take a disastrous problem for them to miss their target.
 

Erehy Dobon

Suspended
Feb 16, 2018
2,161
2,017
No service
Apple avoids shipping new hardware in November/December because they want their holiday lineup to be set by then. There is zero chance of January, don't even know why that's a poll option.

In fact, Apple deliberated bailed out of the now-defunct Macworld Expo because they did not want to be forced to come up with new announcements in early January. That worked again the retail buying cycle and was problematic with employees taking time off (Hannukah, Christmas, New Year, etc.).

Besides, Apple said THIS YEAR at WWDC.

The most realistic Apple Silicon Mac release window is the latter half of October.

Let's also remember that Apple did not refer to the new devices as ARM Macs. They specifically and repeatedly called them Apple Silicon. During the WWDC keynote, Apple made a great effort in not highlighting the Arm architecture. They were also very consciously vague about the GPU architecture during the keynote instead rather blandly using the "Apple Silicon" phrase to describe the entirety of the hardware.

I know a lot of people are fixated on the fact that the new Macs will have Arm-based CPUs but it's really all the other proprietary functions that Apple has developed in other custom silicon that will make Apple Silicon Macs different than the competition.
 
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xxray

macrumors 68040
Jul 27, 2013
3,115
9,412
What do you guys think about this now, given that a September event is happening next week, yet it’s supposed to be only Apple Watches and iPads?
 

dinobear

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2020
245
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jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area
I am going to say the end of december. They might get announced in Sept/Oct with delivery in Dec sometime.

They are not going to miss the holiday selling season. That means buyable by November. And the last thing they want is much of a gap between announcement and availability. Late December would leave them with almost no Mac sales for the holidays.
 
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jerryk

macrumors 604
Nov 3, 2011
7,421
4,208
SF Bay Area

If the chips aren't in production yet, I can't see them shipping before December. Althought I have no knowledge of how long it takes from producing chips to shipping the final product.

Why do you think the chips have not been in production for a while? Part of the switch to Apple Silicon is an increase in secrecy that bringing things in-house provides. And Apple is a very secretive company.
 

Brazzan

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2009
86
18
It depends what you mean by "released". Announced, shipped to a few reviewers or actually available to buy? I'm interpreting it as the latter, so I'll go for December.
 
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xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,697
1,425
They are not going to miss the holiday selling season. That means buyable by November. And the last thing they want is much of a gap between announcement and availability. Late December would leave them with almost no Mac sales for the holidays.
Not the only product they sell for the xmas season.
 

Sheppard

macrumors regular
Apr 29, 2012
123
59
Kent, UK
Checked out the Back to School promo end date (for UK) and it’s 29th October. What’s your guys experience with Apple releasing a Mac during this period? On the one hand, you would take advantage of accelerating sales in the last week or two - but suffer returns. Or... you wait till mid-November to overcome this problem.
 

Jorbanead

macrumors 65816
Aug 31, 2018
1,209
1,438
Apple avoids shipping new hardware in November/December because they want their holiday lineup to be set by then. There is zero chance of January, don't even know why that's a poll option.

Not necessarily. Also the global pandemic could change this as well, but let’s look at apples products from the last 5 years that all released after October (anything released late October, I will also count since it’s really shipping in November)

2015:
Apple TV (Oct 30)
iPad Pro
Apple Pencil

2016:
MacBook Pro 13” (Oct 27)
MacBook Pro 15” (Oct 27)
Apple Watch
Airpods

2017:
iPhone X
iMac Pro

2018:
Apple Pencil
Mac Mini
iPad Pro
Macbook Air

2019:
AirPods Pro
MacBook Pro 16”
Mac Pro
Pro Display XDR
 

Shivetya

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2008
1,669
306
would be nice to have something that doesn't cost over 1k to play with to test compatibility and such
 

fokmik

Suspended
Oct 28, 2016
4,909
4,688
USA
I think it will be November...Apple said by the end of the year...and your question is about release and not about announcement/presentation
It seems the macbook pros/imac will have M series chips, so the A series are for iphone, the A X series for ipads and maybe the 12" Macbook
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Shivetya

macrumors 68000
Jan 16, 2008
1,669
306
Like a US$500 DTK Mac mini...?!?

well that does not count but the idea of an equivalent price point after debut of these systems would be nice. I just don't trust Apple to reduce prices much if at all.
 

msummers

macrumors newbie
Jul 8, 2012
10
0
Hi
I have a quick question when the new ARM macs get release I am planning on buying a new Macbook pro the intel version but I hard rumors that it might be a macbook Pro getting release with the ARM based but I heard a 12 inch macbook as well but if the Macbook pro get release will they stop selling the intel all together or will Apple continue sell them for a limited of time?
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,493
4,053
Like a US$500 DTK Mac mini...?!?

Apple didn't sell the DTK Mac Mini. That $500 is a rental fee ; not a purchase price. Those systems go back to Apple as some point ( several months from now when actual (complete ) Apple Silicon (AS) Macs are more publicly available. ) .

To have software ready to distribute on "day one" and in the first 2-3 months of the AS Mac release it is probably worth it on opportunity costs. [ Software vendors who competitors all have something can have an substantive advantage. Especially if use something like the AVX libraries to do substantive work ( which will suck in performance when run through Rosetta and latch onto fallback non-AVX computation options. )
 
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