A leaker has outlined a possible roadmap for Apple's transition away from Intel processors. According to the post, an ARM-powered MacBook Pro 16 will arrive in 2021, while the company will not bring ARM versions of the iMac Pro or Mac Pro to market until 2022.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Leaker-outlines-possible-ARM-transition-roadmap-for-Apple-ARM-MacBook-Pro-16-to-arrive-in-2021.486586.0.html
This is probably the biggest move in Laptop/Desktop CPU space since the advent of the 386! The question is how will the benchmark/real-life in their high-end Macbook Pro's perform. Will be very interesting for sure!
I guess Apple was not impressed with Intels roadmap of 10nm to 10nm++++++++++
If Apple maintains the standards of Steve Jobs, I think it should be quite good. Apple frequently speaks conservatively to ensure it over delivers. For example, even when the Apple Watch was fully capable of being worn while swimming, they would not advertise it as such.
Apple under Tim Cook is not a vision led company.
The move to ARM is not about some brilliant strategy. It's about unshackling from Intel in the short term, and merging Mobile and Compute platforms.
The problem is that MacOS has legacy code which dates back to NextStep. The company Jobs founded during his period outside of Apple. That is very old code, and there is tons of it.
The last time Apple did such a platform shift it was a huge mess. Creatives struggled as the software vendors played catch up.
These days we have the App store, which should help with validation.
But Apple QA has been on the decline. They support less hardware (Nvidia?) and have not been cooperating with major vendors like Adobe.
We will probably see return of 'fatbinary' to support Intel and Arm for the interim. With many vendors taking a wait and see approach.
It also remains to be seen if Thunderbolt survives the switch, as it's an Intel part for those TB connections. And I only see one non intel logic board, Asrock 570, running TB.
I have said that it is the best time to buy a MacBook Pro 16 with an Intel, I have last years model and love it, great laptop. So if you get a MacBook Pro 16 with a i9 along with AppleCare and then in 3 years as Apple has worked out all the hardware and software issues you can upgrade. Take the old laptop into an Apple store trade in for credit. Use the Apple Card and pay for it over a year with no interest. A win all around.