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Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they go that way too. When I first heard that rumor, I thought "never!". But now I'm like... "hmm, hooray battery life, an OS

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they go that way too. When I first heard that rumor, I thought "never!". But now I'm like... "hmm, hooray battery life, an OS that more fluidly switches from mobile to desktop, maybe not a bad option". Plus ARM is only getting faster/more powerful. Yeah yeah, apple will probably go the way of locking the OS down more, and thats a major buzkill/non-starter, but otherwise I think it's an intriguing concept. Convince me otherwise, I want to hear what huge drawbacks you see to having an ARM laptop.

SyneRyder 7y ago
Microsoft already has ARM-based laptops, so we can see what some drawbacks to ARM might be. The Intel-compiled app compatibility is unbearably slow, despite them making a custom ARM chip to improve performance, and the better battery life isn't happening. The Verge could only get 5-6 hours of battery life on the ARM-based Surface Pro X. [1] Presumably Apple is working harder on fixing all of those things than Microsoft, but maybe issues like that are why we still haven't seen an ARM MacBook yet. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/5/20948092/microsoft-surface-pro-x-review-arm-windows-10-apps-features-specs-price https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/5/20948092/microsoft-surfac...
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Apple is pouring billions of dollars a year into making the best ARM chips on the market. I'm sure they can figure it out.
  - SpelingBeeChamp 7y ago
    I am skeptical of your "billions of dollars a year" claim. Source?
- kalleboo 7y ago
  For context, the current iPad Pro (still running last year's A-chip generation) benchmarks 50% faster than the Surface Pro X, and basic web browsing battery life tests peg it at around 13 hours battery life. Apple killing off 32-bit app support (and Carbon, QuickTime API, etc) is probably them preparing for an ARM transition. Any app that managed to make that transition is well-prepared for a pretty trivial "just change the compile target and press the button" ARM port. Apple would be betting on Mac app devs quickly getting ARM ports of their apps out there. In the Microsoft ecosystem there's zero chance of that happening, so they have to rely much more heavily on emulation. There's also a chance Apple could do some kind of bitcode magic[0], but they don't enable bitcode on the Mac App Store yet, so that is probably not in the cards [0] https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20190518-Translating-an-ARM-iOS-App-to-Intel-macOS-Using-Bitcode https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20190518-Translatin...

SyneRyder 7y ago

Microsoft already has ARM-based laptops, so we can see what some drawbacks to ARM might be. The Intel-compiled app compatibility is unbearably slow, despite them making a custom ARM chip to improve performance, and the better battery life isn't happening. The Verge could only get 5-6 hours of battery life on the ARM-based Surface Pro X. [1] Presumably Apple is working harder on fixing all of those things than Microsoft, but maybe issues like that are why we still haven't seen an ARM MacBook yet. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/5/20948092/microsoft-surface-pro-x-review-arm-windows-10-apps-features-specs-price https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/5/20948092/microsoft-surfac...

saagarjha 7y ago
Apple is pouring billions of dollars a year into making the best ARM chips on the market. I'm sure they can figure it out.
- SpelingBeeChamp 7y ago
  I am skeptical of your "billions of dollars a year" claim. Source?
kalleboo 7y ago
For context, the current iPad Pro (still running last year's A-chip generation) benchmarks 50% faster than the Surface Pro X, and basic web browsing battery life tests peg it at around 13 hours battery life. Apple killing off 32-bit app support (and Carbon, QuickTime API, etc) is probably them preparing for an ARM transition. Any app that managed to make that transition is well-prepared for a pretty trivial "just change the compile target and press the button" ARM port. Apple would be betting on Mac app devs quickly getting ARM ports of their apps out there. In the Microsoft ecosystem there's zero chance of that happening, so they have to rely much more heavily on emulation. There's also a chance Apple could do some kind of bitcode magic[0], but they don't enable bitcode on the Mac App Store yet, so that is probably not in the cards [0] https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20190518-Translating-an-ARM-iOS-App-to-Intel-macOS-Using-Bitcode https://www.highcaffeinecontent.com/blog/20190518-Translatin...