Brendan Shanks on the ARM Mac Transition: ‘Re-Engine, Not Re-Imagine’

Brendan Shanks, speculating on the transition:

Apple will announce a Developer Transition Kit at WWDC, which will be available this summer. The DTK will use an A12Z (the current iPad Pro SoC), inside a Mac mini chassis. Or, I think less likely, an Apple TV chassis with added I/O.

I don’t think it will be a laptop: that would require full power management to be implemented, would be more expensive, and would result in battery life figures for semi-prototype hardware being reported all over the press. That’s really not how Apple rolls.

I wish I had thought about this before I predicted that maybe the developer kits would be laptops. There’s no way Apple wants prototype battery life to speak for the actual transition. Really, that just leaves the Mac Mini.

Great post overall — I think Shanks is largely spot-on.

★ Sunday, 14 June 2020