Apple PC/Tablets Twists and Turns – Monday Note

From a Jean-Louis Gassée toaster-fridge reality check

"For many, it’s an obvious and welcome evolution…but, “fantasy” might be a better word. Even if Apple were able to perform the same emulation magic as Microsoft — that is, run x86 OS X apps on an ARM Mac — the move would split the Mac line into two parts: A Pro branch that requires high-power multicore Intel processors such as the ones used in the iMac Pro and next year’s rumored Mac Pro, and a MacBook line powered by Apple’s home-grown Ax processors. The payoff would be a slightly less expensive MacBook with an improved battery life, but with the unavoidable penalties — the bugs and degraded performance — of running emulated x86 OS X software.

And how does this weigh against Tim Cook’s proclamation that the iPad Pro is “the clearest expression of Apple’s vision for the future of computing”? An ARM-based Mac would be quite a change of mind. Frustrating as the low-end x86 processors might be, I don’t see Apple copying Microsoft’s move."

Apple PC/Tablets Twists and Turns – Monday Note