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

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

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

Now that the performance of Apple’s A series of socs is getting closer to that of cheaper Intel processors, the rumors have been going for a while now that the manufacturer is looking at its own socs for Mac computers. That would require macOS to handle ARM processors, something that is not currently the case. Apple has built in support for UIKit in Mojave, the framework for the interface of iOS apps. That paves the way for running iOS apps on macOS, with or without customization of developers.

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