The first Macs with Apple M1 processors have been shipping since last week – and the press, as well as most customers, are enthusiastic about the new devices. The performance as well as the battery life causes great astonishment in many places – a MacBook Air with Apple M1 can now keep up with an iMac Pro in many tasks. With the entry-level models presented, Apple has now impressively demonstrated what the M1 is capable of – but only in the coming year will it become clear whether these performance increases can also be transferred to other models.
The newly introduced M1 models look very similar to the Intel versions – only the Mac mini with M1 processor now comes in a silver instead of gray housing. According to some sources of rumors, redesigned models will not appear until next year. For example, there are many rumors that Apple is replacing the current 13 “MacBook Pro with a 14” model – similar to the jump from the MacBook Pro 15 “to 16”. You can often hear from the rumor mill that Apple will revise the case design.
Including Intel model?
The well-known leaker L0vetodream now commented on an article by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, which deals with the roadmap for the coming year with regard to the Mac. L0vetodream notes here that Apple is not only planning a new housing design for Macs with Apple Silicon, but also for Intel Macs.
If this leaker didn’t have a very high hit rate, it wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Because: Greg Joswiak from Apple recently said that Apple will support Intel Macs in terms of software for many years to come. They still had Intel Macs in the development pipeline, so Joswiak – and in August Apple actually presented a slightly redesigned iMac. Joswiak’s remark suggests that Apple will no longer present any new Intel models.
Is it worth the effort?
For Apple it would be a great logistical effort and high development costs to develop two models with completely different inner workings. In addition, sales of the Intel variant are likely to be more than limited: For the vast majority of customers, Macs with Apple chips only offer advantages – very few customers would have disadvantages.
In the past, Apple always regulated this situation in such a way that they kept a few previous models in the program for a limited time – so customers who are still dependent on the older models can still purchase them new. With the Mac mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 “, Apple always kept one model in its range.