It’s the scary season!
No, not the election season. (But, yes, also the election season.) Halloween! In addition to Halloween coming up, it’s the season when Apple is on the verge of making a big change that could impact its customers.
Boo!
Writing for the Forbes contributor network and artisanal hysteria works, Ewan Spence says “Apple’s Future Is The End For The MacBook Air.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Nick.)
Spence believes that the MacBook Air is the canary in the ARM mine where they mine the, uh, ARM chips. That’s how you get chips, right? Anyway, Tim Cook is going to drown the Air in a bath with his own hands.
As Tim Cook’s Apple heads into a brave, new ARM-powered world of macOS, it has to make a decision about legacy support and older hardware.
Spence has been hot on this effort to scare-monger Apple’s chip transition, first suggesting it would be a big boon for Microsoft and then that Apple will drop support for Intel-based Macs before people are ready. He usually neglects to mention this is not Apple’s first chip transition rodeo and the company has handled previous ones quite well.
By the way, if you’re trying to keep track of the Macalope’s chip metaphors… well, don’t. He spilled them all over the floor and he’s just picking them up at random.
Spence laments what he predicts will be the end of the MacBook Air because it will get replaced by something incredibly similar but running an ARM chip. So, it’ll get replaced by something better. Which everyone should freak out about.
Finally, it’s going to die in the long term.
Newsflash, Ewan: we all die in the long term. Also, it’s just a product name. Try not to get too attached.
Having laid the groundwork that there certainly is a big problem here with things being improved in terms of speed and battery life and reliable release schedules which is what we’ll get from Apple making its own Mac chips, Spence is ready to invent some masses who are perturbed by this so-called “progress”.
“Tim Cook’s Aggressive Approach To Force macOS Success.” (Another tip o’ the antlers to Nick.)
Questions remain on what this would mean to existing Mac owners with Intel-based hardware. Answering these would calm many existing owners…
Is there some wailing, gnashing of teeth and/or rending of garments from owners of Intel-based Macs that the Macalope is not aware of? Maybe it’s on Facebook. The Macalope’s not on there. Or maybe it’s just in the feverish minds of members of the Forbes contributor network and teacup poodle riding academy.
Back when the horny one was in business school (don’t ask) he remembers reading the following sentence in a textbook:
All decisions must be made in the face of uncertainty.
He liked that. It seemed pretty zen for a book about finance.
Every time you buy a computer, you have to do it in the face of uncertainty about whether or not a better device will be announced soon and how long it’ll be supported. Having experienced previous Apple processor transitions, however, the Macalope feels sure that current Intel-based Macs will be supported for a reasonable amount of time and that Apple will do its best to keep them compatible for as long as is reasonably possible.
It’s something to consider but it shouldn’t keep you up at night.