When Apple first announced its plan to transition from Intel to Apple Silicon at WWDC 2020, the company said it would take about two years to complete the transition completely. Now, a new report from Bloomberg details Apple Silicon’s roadmap and expectations for the next 12 months.
In the latest issue of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman explained that Apple will barely meet its two-year timetable to completely transition the Mac product line to Apple Silicon. So far, we have seen the M1 chip appear on entry-level MacBook Pro, Mac mini, MacBook Air and 24-inch iMac. As Gurman explained, the first batch of M1 Macs debuted in November 2020, which will allow Apple to complete the transition by November 2022.
Looking to the future, Gurman said that new MacBook Pros with more “M1X” processors are still expected to be released in the coming months, and new high-end Mac minis will appear soon after that. In 2022, Gurman expects that iMac will be completely transitioned by the end of next year, and later next year there will also be a modified small Mac Pro with Apple Silicon.
Apple also plans to launch a redesigned MacBook Air sometime in 2022, and Gurman said it will also include support for MagSafe. Gurman also reiterated that Apple is still planning an update to the current Intel Mac Pro, and recent rumors indicate that it may be driven by the Intel Ice Lake Xeon W-3300 workstation CPU.
It is expected that the Mac Pro equipped with Apple Silicon will adopt a smaller form factor, about half of the current Mac Pro, but with a similar design language. Bloomberg previously reported that Apple is developing chips with 20-core and 40-core configurations for use in the smaller Mac Pro.
