Apple announced a switch to ARM processors for the Mac at WWDC 2020 and confirmed that it will launch an ARM powered Mac by the end of the year. Since then, we have seen many reports about which laptop that could be. Now, according to a report from DigiTimes, Apple may ship two MacBooks with Apple Silicon inside before the end of the year.
The report says that the Cupertino giant will ship an ARM powered 13 inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air by the end of 2020. Apparently, shipments for the related components will start going out in Q3 2020 from Apple’s Taiwan supply chain. The report mentions sources stating that “Apple is set to release 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, powered by Apple Silicon, by the end of this year, total shipments of MacBook lineup are expected to reach 16-17 million units in 2020 compared to 14.5-15.5 million units shipped a year earlier, the sources estimated.”
This new report is slightly different from famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s investor note earlier. Kuo claimed that Apple will launch a new 13 inch MacBook Pro with an ARM processor this year. However, he estimated that a MacBook Air with Apple Silicon is likely to come out in Q1 2021.
Apple’s switch to ARM represents the biggest change the company has made in terms of Mac hardware since the switch from PowerPC to Intel. That change brought along major improvements to the MacBook. Now, with tighter integration between the processor, hardware, and software on the Mac, we could see some really impressive things happen with the Mac as well.
