Apple copies Microsoft, moves to abandon Intel

Apple has delivered a shock to Intel’s share price with news of a new project to move their Mac business to ARM-based processors of their own design by 2020.

According to Bloomberg, Project Kalamata would have all Apple’s devices, from iPhones to Macs, running on the low power processors, and would rely on Marzipan, a platform which lets iOS apps run on the Mac desktop.

The move would emulate that of Microsoft, who has already launched their Windows 10 on ARM initiative with two 3rd party laptops already in the market, and who has been working for many years on their UWP platform, which unifies mobile and desktop applications.

Microsoft has however failed to make much impact running mobile-focussed apps on the desktop, and their ARM-powered laptops have been underpowered, seemingly in both cases delivering the worst of both worlds. It remains to be seen if Apple, who always promotes their Mac desktops as creative productivity workstations, will have much success with nearly exactly the same strategy.

Intel, who earns 5% of their income from Apple’s business, but who now appears to be under attack from both sides, has seen their share price dip as much as 9.2% on the news.