Apple’s Advantage (Premium)

Apple’s announcement today that it is moving the Mac to its ARM-based A-series processor chipset is indeed historic. And now that we know its plans, we can examine what the firm is undertaking and compare it to the similar effort by Microsoft part to port Windows 10 to ARM.

At a high level, one might argue that both companies are chasing the same dream, to bring a legacy desktop OS to a more modern and mobile hardware platform. But that’s where the two diverge.

Microsoft sees ARM as an alternative to Intel and AMD chipsets that is consigned to thin and light mobile PCs only. Apple, meanwhile, is literally replacing Intel and will use its own A-series chips in all of its Macs, as it does in all of its other devices.

Because Microsoft can’t make its own microprocessors, it must partner with another firm, in this case Qualcomm, to bring customized silicon to market. But Apple now makes the hardware and the software, so it can continue to evolve each to meet the needs of the other in ways that Microsoft and Qualcomm simply cannot. Indeed, it is striking that Microsoft and Qualcomm also effectively compete with each other in new-generation ARM chipsets for Windows, Qualcomm with its 8cx line, and Microsoft with the SQ-1.

But the biggest difference between the two firms may be the ways in which each, respectively, has come to customers.

After announcing Windows 10 on ARM (WOA) in 2017, Microsoft slowly brought the solution to market with its partners, not just Qualcomm but also a very small handful of PC makers. The initial results were, to put it mildly, terrible: First-generation WOA PCs ran on the same Snapdragon 835 chipset that Qualcomm provided to phone makers, and it ran slowly, especially with emulated 32-bit x86 software. In subsequent years, Qualcomm forked its chipsets in ever more aggressive ways to accommodate the unique needs of Windows and PCs. But that wasn’t good enough for Microsoft, which partnered/competed with Qualcomm by co-creating its own SQ-1 processor for the Surface Pro X.

None of this mattered. WOA PCs have always sold poorly, overall performance has only risen slightly and at a great cost in battery life, and the underlying compatibility issues have never been solved: WOA PCs still cannot run 64-bit (x64) software and they will never be able to utilize standard Windows software drivers. This platform is, at least to date, a failure.

By comparison, Apple says it began its effort to port macOS to its own A-series chipsets a decade ago, though that work was of course done in-house and secretly. During that time, it has evolved both its software and its hardware in lockstep to ensure that they are optimized for each other. And it has created the necessary software solutions to emulate existing (Intel-based) software on new ARM hardware while letting developers automatically support ARM Macs by recompiling apps using Xcode.

Once this work was completed, Apple finally announced its plans. And it will sell its first ARM-based Mac by the end of this year. It is reasonable to assume that this Mac, whatever it is, will provide a much better experience for existing Mac users than does any WOA PC today, and that it will come with few if any of the limitations. By waiting, Apple ensured that everything “just works,” while Microsoft has made beta testers out of the enthusiasts foolish enough to buy early generation WOA PCs, and at great cost.

This should infuriate any Microsoft fan. But rather than focus on that, I’d like to look a bit more closely at exactly what Apple announced and what this means to the Mac and to its users.

Apple is transitioning its entire Mac product line to ARM. I noted this above, but it’s important. Apple isn’t only moving some thin and light portable Macs to ARM, it is moving all Macs to ARM. This means that developers will have to address this shift, whereas the tiny WOA user base on the Windows side of the fence literally ensures that most developers will simply continue to ignore them and the platform’s unique needs.

Developers can get started targeting ARM-based Macs today. Members of the Apple Developer Program can now download a beta version of Xcode that will help them recompile existing apps to, and optimize for, ARM. Or create new apps that target both Intel- and ARM-based Macs. The final version of this Xcode version is expected in September alongside the new version of macOS.

iPhone and iPad apps will run on ARM-based Macs without any modification. Thanks to them using the same underlying hardware platform, iPhone and iPad apps will run on ARM-based Macs without needing to be modified in any way. That said, this particular capability is a bit more nuanced since most developers will want to modify their apps to take advantage of unique Mac features. That, at least, is also possible, and Apple has made big improvements in this area as well. For example, developers will be able to customize how their apps visually scale on the Mac, add full keyboard support, and more.

Developers can potentially get pre-release ARM-based Mac hardware. Developers can indicate their interest in purchasing ARM-based Mac hardware now via the Universal App Quick Start Program. This includes the “limited use” of a Developer Transition Kit (DTK), which is a Mac development system based on Apple’s A12Z Bionic System on a Chip (SoC) in a Mac Mini form factor. That language indicates you’ll be sending it back at the end of the testing program, but the cost of the program—a reasonable $500—won’t be given back to you at that time.

The transition will take two years. While Apple plans to release the first ARM-based Mac “by the end of the year,” and I suspect there will be two models initially, the entire transition will take two years. And Apple plans to release “exciting new Intel-based Macs” in the meantime, and will support Intel-based Macs, including with new macOS versions, for “years to come.” The firm did the same thing with PowerPC previously, and I suspect that today’s Intel-based Macs can look forward to several years of updates. No one is getting orphaned.

The Mac will get a “family” of ARM-based chips. The details on this part of the plan are a bit thin, but Apple plans to release “a family of SoCs for the Mac” that will no doubt scale to meet the needs of everything from thin and light portables to powerful workstation-class desktops with “higher performance GPUs.” It is interesting that the DTK uses an A12Z Bionic chipset, since that is used today in the iPad Pro. I suspect that will come in on the low-end of this family of chipsets, but we’ll see.

The return of Universal apps and Rosetta. Apple is dredging up some names from its previous transition, from Power PC to Intel. Developers will now create “Universal 2” apps using the new Xcode that will run on Intel- and ARM-based Macs. And the new macOS will utilize “Rosetta 2” translation technologies to run existing Intel-based Mac apps on ARM hardware. There was no discussion about how well Rosetta 2 will run these legacy apps, and given the performance and compatibility problems we see on WOA today, this is a key area to watch.

ARM-based Macs will support virtualization. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, but it seems like the target for this functionality has shifted. With Intel-based Macs, macOS supported virtualization solutions and dual-booting primarily to run Windows apps, at least initially. But the ARM-based Macs will only support virtualization within the OS, and not Boot Camp, and it appears that the target this time is Linux, not Windows. (And is thus aimed at developers and not knowledge workers.) This is more pragmatic than technical: Most Mac users simply don’t need Windows apps anymore.

Overall, Apple seems to have approached this transition far more responsibly than did Microsoft, with the caveat that Microsoft doesn’t plan on abandoning Intel or x86 anytime soon. But looked at objectively, Microsoft’s strategy for pushing out ARM in waves is exactly what contributed to its failure: Developers and customers alike know it’s safe to ignore this platform and folly to adopt it specifically because the rollout ensured there will be performance and compatibility issues for years to come.

With the coming ARM-based Macs, there are still some questions, yes, but the overriding impression is that this will work simply because it has to. Apple would never have announced this otherwise.

As I noted previously, I’m curious how this relationship—WOA vs. the ARM-based Macs—evolves over the next two years. Even in a best-case scenario for Windows, WOA will never be at the same level as macOS because WOA will never take over as the sole platform. But I hope to see better compatibility—i.e. support for 64-bit x86 apps by that time—and a continued push for better performance. And who knows? Maybe Microsoft can solve the driver issue too.

But the clock is ticking. And sorry, Microsoft. But time is on Apple’s side in this race.