According to Bloomberg, international news agency, which in its turn referred to a personal informer from Apple, this technology manufacturing giant is going to use own processors in Mac computers instead of Intel’s starting in 2020. The initiative is only the beginning of development and, consequently, not much information is available. This step could be a part of a company’s strategy to bring all its devices closer in terms of software and hardware. If the information is true, we are likely to see a gradual transition to proprietary hardware. However, nothing stops Apple from discarding the plans at some point.
This move may grant Apple a certain level of independence. As for today, the release of new Macs is primarily oriented on the cycle of Intel’s processor releases and production. Many devices are already equipped with Apple’s ARM processors: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Nevertheless, the company is still tied to dozens of other companies relying on their memory chips, hard drives, wireless modules, screens, etc.
The biggest danger here is a re-enactment of 2005 scenario, when company abolished IBM PowerPC architecture in favour of Intel, rendering previously developed software incompatible. Every new third-party software was incompatible with the older system forcing the users to sell their old Mac and buy new systems, and every software package developed for PowerPC was unusable on the newer systems forcing the users to spend even more for software upgrades
It would be interesting to see how Apple would compete with such giants as Intel and AMD. Nevertheless, the news already hit Intel – within a day from its spreading Intel’s stock price fell by 9.2%.