Apple will soon switch its Macs from Intel processors to ARM chips. Will the transition work out? All the evidence tells us it should be a roaring success.
Apple is planning to ditch Intel processors and switch its Macs to ARM chips. It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in tech right now, and according to the latest reports, the transition will be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) later this month. With the change now looking imminent, people have been questioning whether Apple has what it takes to make the switch a success.
After all, the road to ARM-based PCs has been wrought with problems. Microsoft has attempted it a multitude of times, only to fail in key areas like performance and software compatibility. We have every right to be skeptical about Apple’s own attempts, but when you consider the evidence, Apple is as well-equipped as any company to nail this transition.
A transition to ARM means a radical change in Mac system architecture. New architecture means new software, which has been Microsoft’s Achilles’ heel in its attempts to transition to ARM. If Apple isn’t careful, its new MacBooks could suffer the same fate as the Surface Pro X. That flagship device couldn’t run many of the apps people expect to use on a Windows laptop due to the change in system architecture.
Fortunately, Apple already has experience tackling this problem. Early on, Apple ditched Motorola processors in favor of PowerPC. More recently, Apple even phased out 32-bit apps on its MacOS platform, which often required developers to rewrite apps for 64-bit compatibility.
The transition from PowerPC processors to Intel, though, is the most relevant example. Apple provided developers with a piece of software called Rosetta.
