Growing marketshare but profitably and without impairing the brand is what Apple is about. That's why we have the iPhone SE. The M series lets them do that with

Growing marketshare but profitably and without impairing the brand is what Apple is about. That's why we have the iPhone SE. The M series lets them do that with the Mac now. And more Macs implies more Apple services sales. It's certainly partly defensive - they were frustrated with Intel - but Apple would only make a move of this scale if it thought it created business opportunities for them.