Apple to move to ARM processors for laptops
 

Hmmmm...... Just looking down the threads and I don't see anything for this. Since I was first here to let you all know about the Apple move to Intel, there are now fairly substantial rumours they will be moving their laptop line to ARM. Both Macrumors and The Register are reporting this.

If the move to Intel made a lot of sense to me back then, then this rumour, if true, this leaves me a bit nonplussed.

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I can see this happening for the Air, and maybe the MacBook, but a 17" MBP running Final Cut off an ARM?

I will believe it when Steve announces it.

I have to agree with Tummy, its always hard to know what apple is doing behind the scenes, but it would be interesting if they did do this.

How about posting some links to the articles?

I haven't seen it mentioned on the blogs I follow (TUAW, Engadget)

-David

Cool, an Omni style request for proof. Here you go:

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/05/0...e_arm_laptops/

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/06/...uture-laptops/

Weren't the two reporting blogs mentioned by the OP? There is a lot of news Engadget misses.

The two citations are both based on a single entry from http://semiaccurate.com/2011/05/05/a...-laptop-lines/ , which seems to be pretty dubious.

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If you can't trust semiaccurate.com, who can you trust?

This tech blog also cited 'semiaccurate'. However, it puts forth some compelling arguments as to why the move won't happen.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...y-would-it.ars

An ARM-based laptop from Apple would make a lot of sense -- maybe to replace the MBA (the 11", especially, has a dog of a processor) -- assuming it doesn't cause too much brand confusion. A new "iBook", perhaps.

Going all ARM is implausible, especially at a time when the Intel-based Macs are still gaining marketshare in the professional world; lose the ability to virtualize Windows apps, and lose the high end performance, and suddenly all the developers I support who are bugging me for MacBook Pros rather than PC desktops/laptops will be "forget it."

x86-64 is still way ahead of the ARM for general-purpose computing, and I don't think it's likely they'll move the MacBook Air (the most likely candidate) to ARM. The current MBA is actually similarly-specced to the previous MBA from two years ago, just with smaller parts (thanks Moore's law) and the new unibody allowing them to cram in more battery volume; future ones are probably going to keep shrinking the same Intel-based hardware and growing the batteries.

yeah but i think if with a post like the OP, specific references should be cited.

-David

good article .. thx.

-David

If they came out with a separate line of iOS-based laptops, I could see this happening, but I don't think it would in the forseeable future replace the current product lines.