Apple needs to move into the CPU sector and offer their chips for the PC market.
Apple needs to move into the CPU sector and offer their chips for the PC market.
I’ll start by acknowledging it’s unlikely, yet I’ll go ahead and say it. Apple might move into the CPU market and sell their chips for personal computers. In theory, they could earn massive profits without directly competing with themselves. Though this new situation might be tough for some to accept, if these standards are true, Apple would lead AMD and Intel by a long shot. They’d dominate in performance and efficiency. They could reduce the chips to just CPU cores plus an integrated GPU, positioning it as an ARM-based x86 alternative for PCs—similar to what Qualcomm once tried. There’d be huge demand, pushing AMD and Intel to change their strategies, which would ultimately benefit everyone. Of course, this isn’t the most optimistic scenario, but it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility either. IBM did it before, and Apple could too.
Apple is primarily known as a consumer electronics brand, not a SoC or semiconductor manufacturer. Their chip is relatively new in the industry. Sharing their processor with third-party makers would challenge the dominance of established players like Intel and AMD. This move could undermine Apple’s own products, as consumers might prefer cheaper alternatives like a $1000 laptop over a $2000 Mac with the same specs. Entering a highly competitive and saturated market would likely lead to failure, especially since MacOS is exclusive to Apple devices and the M1 chip is designed specifically for MacOS, not Windows. To achieve the advertised performance, Apple would need to license MacOS to external vendors—something that seems unlikely.
Apple ignores it. If their chips are excellent, half of all computers sold would be Macs.
If Apple sold just their CPU, they’d need to team up with an OEM and offer a motherboard. That scenario wouldn’t occur since Apple aims to keep everything inside its closed system. To sell the CPU they’d also need macOS, which they wouldn’t do either. Given how strict Apple is about preventing repairs from users or third parties, they’d definitely avoid selling the M1 chip or their operating system.
Apple should aim for more powerful chip designs, like 8, 10, or even 16 cores, to stay competitive. A higher core count combined with competitive pricing is essential. The MacBook 13-inch currently costs $1400, so understanding the manufacturing expenses for such a chip would help determine realistic production budgets.
No? They don't, it's an ARM CPU. It should function on both Linux and Windows with ARM support for their "low power cores" would be great!
An iPad works very differently from a desktop computer. You can’t switch its operating system because iOS 14 doesn’t support that change, even though it uses an ARM chip. Linux and Windows aren’t designed for iPads, but you can install a compatible Linux distribution on Android without issues, since those use ARM processors too.