Apple to move Mac lineup to custom ARM-based architecture by 2020: report

Apple may transition to its own ARM-based Mac chips as early as next year, according to Axios.

Sources at Intel and developers the website spoke to said they expect Apple to drop the chipmaker’s X86 architecture in 2020. This news comes in the same week that Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman published a report in which he said Apple planned to allow iOS developers to port their iPad apps to macOS beginning this year. In the same story, Gurman said Apple wants to give developers the ability to create one app which will work across iPhone, iPad and Mac by 2021.

The hope is that a single app platform will lead to a greater number of available macOS apps, as well as greater unity across the company’s disparate operating systems. Additionally, by ditching Intel, Apple will have the freedom to iterate on its Mac lineup at its own pace, instead of having to wait for Intel to release new chips — the chipmaker has famously struggled for almost half a decade to break through the 10nm process barrier.

ARM-based chipsets present other advantages over Intel’s X86 platform, including the potential for multi-day battery life and built-in LTE connectivity, that make it particularly interesting to laptops manufacturers like Apple.

Source: Axios