Macintosh moving to ARM

[Darryl Ramm]

For people making money off their systems if upgrading now would let them do more work, make more money... buy an Intel Mac to tide yourself over the next ~3+ years. That all seems much safer than hoping any transition will be smooth, if you know you need more computer now.

We likely have about this year, to see new Intel Macs released, and during that time we will see more information about software transitions (even if not from Avid... but I hope they work out how to start communicating better) etc. And you'll know a lot more... so I'd not rush a purchase right now unless it was needed, but if needed... heck go for it now and get work done. I could still well imagine buying a Intel Mac for studios etc at the end of this year depending on what happens.

For consumers who want to be on later stuff or want to play with toys (e.g. some folks might want iOS app integration etc. only coming on the ARM Macs) they may have more reason to wait and see. I'd also be looking more now at used Intel Macs... pity Apple had not had the new Cheesegrater out many years ago so there was a used/remanufactured market.

And again if hoping for ARM futures I would pay attention to interface/driver support for audio interfaces from any vendor.

[tonejunkee]

And here I was about to replace my 2011 MBP. It still runs fine but I was drawn to the max 64GB RAM of the latest model. That and the vastly quieter operation. I may still get one, since we all know the ARM model will likely clash with PT.

[JFreak]

64 gigs is plenty for laptop, but what bugs me is the infamous apple tax on internal storage.

[unkJE]

Apple Silicon - A Developer Helps To Explain The Impact

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pro...eid=070aa82ed2

[es355lucille]

Originally Posted by unkJE

Apple Silicon - A Developer Helps To Explain The Impact

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pro...eid=070aa82ed2

Thank You, that is interesting. I am looking to upgrade my MacBook Pro laptop this summer. I am thinking it might be a good thing before the changes? The changes sound like its going to make it interesting for a while.....aka sh#t show.
Anyone else considering upgrading in the next couple of months?

[unkJE]

Originally Posted by es355lucille

.....Anyone else considering upgrading in the next couple of months?

As I’m a Wally from Windows world, please read RamMeister Darryl’s view:

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

For people making money off their systems if upgrading now would let them do more work, make more money... buy an Intel Mac to tide yourself over the next ~3+ years. That all seems much safer than hoping any transition will be smooth, if you know you need more computer now.

We likely have about this year, to see new Intel Macs released, and during that time we will see more information about software transitions (even if not from Avid... but I hope they work out how to start communicating better) etc. And you'll know a lot more... so I'd not rush a purchase right now unless it was needed, but if needed... heck go for it now and get work done. I could still well imagine buying a Intel Mac for studios etc at the end of this year depending on what happens.

For consumers who want to be on later stuff or want to play with toys (e.g. some folks might want iOS app integration etc. only coming on the ARM Macs) they may have more reason to wait and see. I'd also be looking more now at used Intel Macs... pity Apple had not had the new Cheesegrater out many years ago so there was a used/remanufactured market.

And again if hoping for ARM futures I would pay attention to interface/driver support for audio interfaces from any vendor.

[BCnSTL]

Apple is doing what they feel they must to grow the Mac platform. There is no evil intent. Apple will maintain their margins but I predict the value proposition for Mac computers will improve - more power and/or efficiency per dollar. Maybe it isn't what you would personally prefer they do, if so choose you can always choose a different platform.

I think it's exciting. We're going to see a leap forward. However, I just bought a new MBP 16 i9 to tide me over for the next ~3 years. It seems likely it will take Avid a while to release an Apple-Silicon compatible Pro Tools.

[Johnny Hulst]

So if Avid has to move the programming to ARM, will we see a version of PT which will operate on a ipad?
If my new macpro 7.1 will be apple-absolete in about 3 years, I’ll try installing windows on mine and go with that, its only running PT.

[Kwixo]

Originally Posted by JFreak

To each their own; I myself would say the connectors are TB3 unless otherwise mentioned.

I just wanted to correct the record on this. The dev kit is based on the A12z iPad chip. iPads do not currently utilize thunderbolt so the port is usb c only. More than likely the Mac family of Apple silicon will indeed support thunderbolt technology.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Johnny Hulst

So if Avid has to move the programming to ARM, will we see a version of PT which will operate on a ipad?

What is the meaning of life?

Migrating a Mac app to ARM and migrating to iPad are orders of magnitude apart in complexity. And why would Avid invest in a more low-end/consumer focused DAW use when everything Avid has done there has been a failure.

Avid needs to cut costs and worry about debt covenants. Survival of the company, and exec team's jobs depends very much on those covenants. That should keep management focused on the business and not doing goofy/unneeded stuff, but hey this is Avid, so who knows.

Migrating a whole ecosystem across to ARM is already likely a large amount of work for Avid, without finding things to make it harder.