Quick thoughts on a keynote
I watched Apple’s WWDC virtual keynote this week and I have to admit the event left me quite impressed. In fact, I found the pre-recorded format—which could’ve been stale and artificial— refreshing. Presentations were tighter and the entire production felt much more in line with present-day Apple than the Jobs-era keynotes everyone imitates nowadays. I loved those Stevenotes, but Tim Cook isn’t Steve Jobs. The slick packaging, the photography and various settings all worked to create a much more entertaining reveal in my opinion. It lifted all its participants too.
I was hoping for more evolution on the iPadOS side of things (1), but overall I think the ecosystem is becoming extremely strong. Most of all, cohesive (2). Which bring us to the big news of the day: bye-bye Intel. I lived through all of Apple’s transitions—68K to PowerPC, Classic to OS X and PowerPC to Intel—but I’ve never been as excited as I am for this one. Because the move away from X86 goes beyond specs and enters seismic shift territory: for the first time in the Mac’s existence, the entire pipeline of the machine will be controlled by Apple-created hardware. Like the iPhone, like the iPad; like every other device in Apple’s current lineup. And judging from those examples, I think we’re in for a gigantic leap forward. It is immensely clear how advanced the company’s SoC approach has become at this point and how far a fully customized experience—with hardware and software melded as one—will propel future products. Everything will change. Everything.
Now, Apple is being extremely aggressive, promising the first Apple processor Mac by year’s end, with a two-year timeframe for the entire transition. That’s crazy fast which is great news, but it still creates a limbo effect. After the announcement, Tim Cook was quick to mention “great Intel-based Macs coming”...because yeah, they still need to sell computers in the interim. But after seeing the future, is the prospect of buying a machine tied to the past (essentially EOL’d, regardless of mid or long term support) all that appealing to anyone? My late-2015 iMac is getting long in the tooth... but I won’t be purchasing another Intel-based Mac. I have to wonder who will, given the choice.
We can certainly argue about global UI changes, about widgets or the actual importance of picture-in-picture in the grand scheme of things...but this silicon-who-shall-not-be-named is a game changer.
No hyperbole.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
1. I kept thinking: don’t we have sidebars already? Why is Craig going gaga over sidebars?
2. Ok, the whole Catalyst vs native iOS on Mac vs Electron vs native Mac is a little confusing. But the underlying philosophy seems clearer than it used to be.
