First Apple silicon Mac could debut on Nov. 17

Apple is reportedly readying a special event for November that will deliver word of the company's first Apple silicon Macs, according to prolific leaker Jon Prosser.

Without citing sources, Prosser on Thursday said the upcoming special event will concentrate on "ARM Mac" devices, more commonly known as Apple silicon Macs.

"To confirm, there IS a November ARM Mac event," Prosser said in a tweet. "I'm hearing November 17th."

The post seconds predictions first aired by Bloomberg last week. That report claimed Apple plans to unveil its first Apple silicon Mac alongside "other products" at an event in November, suggesting the computer is to be joined by refreshes to existing Intel-based lines. Apple previously confirmed that it would continue to rely on Intel processors as it transitions to its own chips.

It remains unclear as to which Mac model will be first to get the Apple silicon treatment. Rumors in June claimed Apple plans to revive the 12-inch MacBook with an "A14X" processor. A report from the China Times in August said the machine will boast a custom GPU, USB-C connectivity, weigh less than 1kg and net between 15 and 20 hours of battery life. Cellular 5G connectivity is also rumored for integration.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a solid track record in predicting Apple product launches, in July presented a timeline that pegged both a 13.3-inch MacBook Pro and revamped MacBook Air to take on Apple's custom chips in the fourth quarter of 2020. Those are expected to be followed by 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models and an all-new form factor device in the second or third quarter of 2021, Kuo said.

28 Comments

Japhey 6 Years · 1772 comments

About 4 years ago

PSA:
If anyone cares, the (Product)Red watch bands are available now. The Braided Solo Loop is already pushed back to an early-mid December delivery, but the Solo Loop is showing a 1-2 week window.

Rayz2016 8 Years · 6957 comments

designr said:

I'd bet on a MacBook Pro as the first.

The first round of customers for Apple Silicon Macs seem likely to be developers. A new MBP would be a good start here. Plus they can likely hide any increase in BOM cost more easily in a higher cost machine. They can also show off the power they can do with early AS chips without doing a full Mac Pro or iMac just yet.

Seems like a nice middle ground between consumer and high-end pro.

I think they’ll go for the lower end machines first. Consumers are less concerned with what’s running inside the machines. Developers will need to see stuff like Docker running reliably. I’m just guessing though.

commentzilla 10 Years · 777 comments

Rayz2016 said:

designr said:

I'd bet on a MacBook Pro as the first.

The first round of customers for Apple Silicon Macs seem likely to be developers. A new MBP would be a good start here. Plus they can likely hide any increase in BOM cost more easily in a higher cost machine. They can also show off the power they can do with early AS chips without doing a full Mac Pro or iMac just yet.

Seems like a nice middle ground between consumer and high-end pro.

I think they’ll go for the lower end machines first. Consumers are less concerned with what’s running inside the machines. Developers will need to see stuff like Docker running reliably. I’m just guessing though.

Crazy long battery life combined with performance that exceeds the current models even when running x86 will likely be the selling point. Mass adoption is the goal, then developers will not be able to resist.

CheeseFreeze 7 Years · 1339 comments

commentzilla said:

Rayz2016 said:

designr said:

I'd bet on a MacBook Pro as the first.

The first round of customers for Apple Silicon Macs seem likely to be developers. A new MBP would be a good start here. Plus they can likely hide any increase in BOM cost more easily in a higher cost machine. They can also show off the power they can do with early AS chips without doing a full Mac Pro or iMac just yet.

Seems like a nice middle ground between consumer and high-end pro.

I think they’ll go for the lower end machines first. Consumers are less concerned with what’s running inside the machines. Developers will need to see stuff like Docker running reliably. I’m just guessing though.

Crazy long battery life combined with performance that exceeds the current models even when running x86 will likely be the selling point. Mass adoption is the goal, then developers will not be able to resist.

Developers don’t need convincing. This transition is going to happen, and they’ll have to jump aboard to keep their software relevant and transition gradually.
Plus I think there are many professionals using the MacBook Pro, but not for coding but creative tasks like video editing or 3D modeling.

I’m personally betting on Apple focusing on releasing the Apple Silicon MacBook first, because the requirements of a consumer are closer to the iPad users, and the difference between the iPad silicon and laptop silicon is likely a maller.

I am personally most interested in their GPU performance. For a Pro machine they’ll have to convince users it offers more than current discrete GPU solutions.

tht 23 Years · 5654 comments

commentzilla said:

Rayz2016 said:

designr said:

I'd bet on a MacBook Pro as the first.

The first round of customers for Apple Silicon Macs seem likely to be developers. A new MBP would be a good start here. Plus they can likely hide any increase in BOM cost more easily in a higher cost machine. They can also show off the power they can do with early AS chips without doing a full Mac Pro or iMac just yet.

Seems like a nice middle ground between consumer and high-end pro.

I think they’ll go for the lower end machines first. Consumers are less concerned with what’s running inside the machines. Developers will need to see stuff like Docker running reliably. I’m just guessing though.

Crazy long battery life combined with performance that exceeds the current models even when running x86 will likely be the selling point. Mass adoption is the goal, then developers will not be able to resist.

I wouldn't bet on long battery life. Not enough people want it to warrant SKUs with them. OEMs have been able to make long runtime machines for decades. It's easy to do as it just involves using higher capacity batteries. Instead, laptops have been driven down in thinness and weight. A MBP13 that is say 4 lb could be made with 20 hr runtimes. Not enough people want that over a 3 lb device with 10 hrs runtime. The same has been true with phones, something that is used a lot more throughout the day than a laptop.

So, about 12 hrs runtime, cool and quiet running, instant on/off, hopefully cellular, with great performance, yes. 20 hr battery life? Probably not.