A Big Day for Apple

After watching the special 2 hour World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote from Apple, in what can only be described as the challenging present, I was surprised to see Apple take such a massive step forward without all the fan fair of a room full of developers and Apple devotees clapping through the presentation. Within this special keynote Apple announced a mirage of software updates and a single hardware change that will shape the future of Apple and the wider IT community for years to come, they are leaving the long term partnership with Intel, be that over a few years, and moving to their own custom silicone "Apple Silicone" or SoC if you would prefer.

Apple took the COVID-19 safe approach of moving WWDC 2020 to a complete virtual experience and providing the whole thing not only to developers but to all for free, which also reflected nicely in Tim Cook's words about the state of the world, in his opening statements he reflected on the inequality, systemic racism, poverty and of course the global pandemic. For me in this moment Cook showed why he was and still remains the best man to steer Apple forward after the loss of Jobs, he lead the conference with conviction and with what Apple always holds key it's standing as a force for change in the world. This introduction to a WWDC while heart felt and somber then quickly transitioned to talk about the great things that lied ahead, and Tim handed over to Craig Federighi.

Over the next hour or so Craig would seamlessly hold together a show built around slick transitions, hand offs to other members of the Apple team across the newly finished Apple Park. The updates covered everything with iOS 14, Watch OS 7 , iPad OS, the changes coming to home technologies and even the latest redesigned MacOS Big Sur. While I could talk for hours around each of these developments, I think that these where but an appetiser for what was to come, Craig returned to Tim in the Steve Jobs Theatre who stood on a stage in-front of an empty room to reminded us all of the impact that Apple has had on the home computer, from the introduction of the mouse, to the revolution of the graphical user interface. He then went on to talk about the 3 major changes in the world of the Mac, the move to PowerPC, the introduction of OS X and the move to Intel, he then went on to explain that today was the time for the 4th in these major changes as Apple looks for a "huge leap forward".

The keynote then transition to Johny Srouji in a "secret" development lab, where he talked us through the success Apple has had in developing its own SoC's from the A5 to the A12X chips that we find in our current iPad Pros, this story of success is only reflected in the numbers of 100x faster processors, 1000x greater GPU all of this while balancing power usage and performance. Well today Apple starts the transition from the Intel based processors that have severed them so well since 2005 to their own SoC's which will build upon the legacy of the current "A" chips and will drive the line up of MacOS Devices closer with those of their currently distant iOS and iPadOS siblings.

This is the first revolutionary change since Apple moved away from PowerPC in 2005 and moved the line up to Intel, the change then was driven by getting they best performance and computability from the systems and Apple hasn't forgotten this as Rosetta returns in the form of Rosetta 2 a native machine level code application that will allow current Intel ready apps to move across onto the Apple Silicone devices once released, this will allow users to continue to use the apps they love while waiting on developers to move across to running their apps on Universal 2. Craig then went on to talk about how MacOS Big Sur has rebuilt all of the native Mac apps to run on Universal 2 which means from launch Big Sur is Apple Silicone ready, they have also though about helping developers out by integrating the tools into Xcode which will allow for easy transition of apps in "days".

The final piece of this puzzle comes in the form of virtualisation support which is native and in the box and support for iOS and iPadOS applications on the Mac, which lets be honest, is Apple's real drive for making this move, by integrating the platforms in means that a developer makes one app that runs on 3 platforms and will increase the Mac's market share as people ditch PC's for a integrated experience or at least that is Apple's goal.

My take away from the whole event is that Apple is making a big move and while Intel would never say it, this is a blow for them as if Apple can make their own ARM chips, Microsoft sure can and will, this is a continued blow for the chip giant who over the last few years has continued to loose market share to AMD, who have had a resurgence with their cheaper more powerful desktop chips.

Everything that Apple announced today, shows a mature and controlled step in an integrated infrastructure, a keynote that did not take many wrong steps, that managed to not announce any new hardware but still keep us all engaged.

You wont be able to get your hands on a Apple Silicone device until the end of 2020 unless you're an Apple developer, like myself and some of my colleges *cough* . However, you will be able to experience OS 14, Watch OS 7 , iPad OS and MacOS Big Sur this Autumn and you can purchase your latest generation Apple Devices form Planet IT today and the Apple Silicone devices as soon as they release.

You can Contact me at - LinkedIn Message James Dell or Email : [email protected] Or Speak to a member of the Planet IT Team by Calling on 01235 433900 or Email : [email protected]