Many researchers at UoM like to use Apple Macs, both MacBooks and desktop systems.

As we all know now, Apple have announced that from the end of 2020 they will start the transition of their Mac line away from Intel to what they are calling "Apple Silicon", by which they mean Arm-based SOCs (System On a Chip). They currently use such Apple Silicon in iPads and iPhones, so it makes a lot of sense for them.

Should a current Mac owner, like me, be worried? For example, has the value of my current Intel-based Mac decreased? The alternative may be the case. Before saying why, I would like to recall Apple's last change of processor, from PowerPC to Intel. I remember buying a PowerPC-based MacBook after the Intel ones were first announced: it served me very well for quite some time before I sold it (or I may have passed it on to family, I forget).

Apple will still be making Intel-based Macs for a while, including a rumoured new iMac, and they have some advantages. The key one being that running Windows 10 under dual boot (Bootcamp) or virtualised will continue to work, whereas it seems that will not be the case for Arm-based ones. At least when first launched. Apple have demoed Linux running virtually on an Arm Mac, but that was a version of Linux compiled for Arm. If they could have demoed Windows similarly, I suspect they would have (or at least mentioned it).

Microsoft do have a version of Windows 10 that works on Arm, but currently it only runs 32-bit applications. No one, outside of Microsoft, really knows what their plans are for more extensive Arm support.

At some future date, a third party may introduce some kind of support for running Windows 10 64-bit applications on an Arm Mac, but we don't know.

Intel-based Macs will be supported by Apple for years to come. Don't discard your Intel Mac too quickly, when the Arm ones appear – I know I won't – especially if you need to run some Windows programs from time to time!