by Jason Snell
Bloomberg: Next week’s Apple silicon laptops will be familiar
The first Apple silicon Macs will be announced next week, and they will be familiar-looking MacBooks, according to Mark Gurman and Debby Wu of Bloomberg:
Apple and overseas suppliers are ramping up production of three Mac laptops with Apple processors: new 13-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and a new 13-inch MacBook Air, according to people familiar with the matter…. The smaller models are further ahead in production and at least those two laptops will be shown at next week’s event. Beyond the processor switch, the devices won’t have significant design changes.
Those hoping for an exciting new design, or the return of the 12-inch MacBook, seem to be on the path to disappointment. It seems to me that Apple is taking a more measured approach to this transition, as it did with its last chip transition. If you don’t remember back that far, the first Intel Macs were dead ringers for the last PowerPC Macs. On the inside they were dramatically different computers—but they came in a familiar shell, and familiarity isn’t bad.
The report from Gurman and Wu also says that Apple is working on a new Mac Pro that’s based on Apple silicon and “looks like the current design at about half the size.” This chip transition may start off in restrained fashion, but I still believe it is going to dramatically transform the Mac in the next few years.
But first, baby steps.