Latest Apple Leak Reveals Important MacBook Pro Details
Tim Cook has been playing his cards at ARMs length over the radical change of architecture to the Mac range. News of the transition was confirmed at the virtual WWDC 2020, and a number of hand-picked third-party developers presumably have hefty NDAs as well as their Developer Transition Kits. The moment when Cook’s ARM-powered hand must be revealed is approaching.
And it looks like it will be November 17th.
Perhaps if 2020 had been a year where nobody had heard of COVID-19 and the tech community had its release calendar following the normal pattern we would be discussing the relative merits of the approach to desk-bound ARM computing from Microsoft and Apple. But that 2020 is as fictional as Roland Emmerich’s disaster-strewn 2012.
Instead the early September iPhone 12 launch event was pushed back, with the Apple Watch, iPad, and iPad Air sharing the limelight. October, which is traditionally a mix of reinforcing the iPhone sales and satisfaction numbers as well as updating product families such as the iPad and Mac because the launch event for the iPhone 12 range.
With the iPhone Apple’s keystone product for the year, there was no way that a romantic ‘just one more thing’ was going to show up with the new MacBook - there’s just too much education, explanation, and press momentum required to give the macOS on ARM laptops the momentum required for a good product launch to have it either as the entree or the dessert of the iPhone 12.
So, on the assumption that one of Apple’s key products for the future is not going to be launched by a press release and a few hand-picked reviews under embargo, we’re due another Apple launch event. After all, Tim Cook has a deadline to keep; the promise at WWDC to release new macOS on ARM hardware by the end of the year started the clock.
It looks like we have a date for an upcoming Apple event, and the launch of the ARM-powered MacBook is first in line. Noted Apple watcher Jon Prosser has the date, and the topic:
"To confirm, there is a November ARM Mac event. I’m hearing November 17th."
As well as playing a big game of specification and benchmarking bingo, presumably with the phrase “the best Mac we’ve ever made", I’ll be looking for a few things from the presentation. The big question is over emulation. Apple will be delivering Rosetta 2, but what exactly will it be emulating? Will it be every single macOS app that can run under Catalina? Will it be a subset of those apps depending on what hardware is expected? Or will Apple play a forcing move and limit emulation to Catalyst apps?
What design cues and user experiences will Apple have packaged into its own apps - which presumably will all be available as native ARM apps (after all, who would launch their ARM laptop without ensuring key first-party productivity tools were available in native code?). How the likes of Safari performs can be directly benchmarked across Mac machines.
I’ll also be watching Adobe carefully.
When Microsoft launched the Surface Pro X, Adobe was there on the stage, announcing that its Creative Cloud apps would be coming to the Pro X, starting with Fresco. In regards timescale, Adobe’s Scott Belsky said “very soon.” That was 382 days ago.
I wonder if we’ll have to wait that long on the macOS on ARM version?
Roll on November 17th.
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