Analyst Kuo: ARM chips Apple for Macs coming in two or three years

Apple’s ARM socs for MacBooks and iMacs are coming in two or three years. That’s what analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who specializes in Apple, says in a report. Chips for Apple’s Car project follow a few years later.

Macs will start running on Apple’s own A-socs from 2020 or 2021, Kuo says, according to AppleInsider. Apple would like to start using the A-socs in cheaper Mac products first, because the Pro laptop may still run software that requires an x86 processor in the near future. Kuo is known for accurate predictions about undisclosed Apple hardware.

With the performance of Apple’s A-series of socs approaching that of cheaper Intel processors, it has been rumored for some time that the manufacturer is looking at its own socs for Mac computers. That would require macOS to handle ARM processors, which is not the case now. Apple has built into Mojave support for UIKit, the framework for the interface of iOS apps. That paves the way for running iOS apps on macOS, with or without developer adjustments.

Apple itself has not said anything about a possible switch to ARM for its Mac products. It does fit in with the manufacturer’s strategy to develop more and more parts of its devices itself. For example, recent Macs have a chip that controls security functions, the T2.