To the Apple Silicon Mac Pro and Beyond
In case you missed it, I wrote about how Apple might transition the Mac to Apple Silicon over the next 18 months over on fcp.co. As well as replacing or discontinuing all current Intel-based Macs, Apple have the opportunity to make new Macs for new price points and new markets.
- Apple likes to keep Macs at the same price points over the years. This means the extra power the M-series SoCs will provide more Mac at the same price. Not new Macs with the same power at lower price points.
- I suggest that a new industrial design for iMacs could include a transparent bezel – like the outer edge of the screen used in the 2004 iMac. Wide enough for users to be able to grip the edge to turn the screen vertical:
- The limits to how fast the transition will take place. Not all Macs will transition this Summer – which Macs will be last.
- A new opportunity for Apple in education:
Hundreds of dollars below that $899 education price, Chromebook tablets and laptops prices start at $269. I expect that schools will hope to allocate $300-$350 to buying each tablet plus keyboard or laptop. At this level, computers for education have 4GB of slow RAM and 32GB of slow SSD storage.
- If Apple wants to seriously compete in education market, what would a new M1E-based Mac be like?
- 4 CPU cores (including at least two high-performance cores)
- 4 GPU cores
- 4GB of fast RAM
- 64GB of fast SSD storage
- No screen
- No keyboard
- Single USB port for keyboard/mouse
- HDMI port for display
- Separate power port
- $250
- New Mac price points and form factors:
As Apple are likely to using a small variety of M-series SoCs at any one time, in a larger range of enclosures (13-inch, 14-inch, 16-inch, mini, iMac and Mac Pro), eventually Macs might also be available in additional enclosures:
- 11-inch MacBook Air/Pro
- 18-inch MacBook Pro
- 16-inch iMac
- 40-inch iMac
- Mac Pro mini – a smaller version of the Mac Pro
- Mac nano – the smallest ‘hockey puck’ Mac that can contain an M-series SoC, for those who think a Mac mini is much too big
- Mac Pi – a tiny circuit board-only Mac version of the Raspberry Pi computer that is used in education and embedded systems
Read the article over at fcp.co, the home for Final Cut Pro on the internet.