Oliver Haslam on July 17, 2020, 8:08 pm

Apple Silicon-Powered 13-Inch MacBook Pro / Air Could Launch This Year [Report]

Apple will launch the first Macs with powered by its own silicon before the end of the year, according to the company’s own WWDC event last year. Now we might know what those machines will be, with DigiTimes reporting that the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air will be the first ARM-based Macs.

According to the report, Apple’s Taiwanese supply chain will have backlit units (BLUs) and other components ready as soon as the third quarter of 2020. That would suggest that everything will be lined up before September.

As Apple is set to release 13-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌, powered by Apple Silicon, by the end of this year, total shipments of MacBook lineup are expected to reach 16-17 million units in 2020 compared to 14.5-15.5 million units shipped a year earlier, the sources estimated.

As one might expect, Apple’s chip partner TSMC will reportedly be the big winner in terms of Apple’s switch to its own silicon. It already produces the chips that reside in iPhones and iPads as well as some components that make their way into Macs, too. It will apparently be the company that ramps up its chip production so it can pick up the Mac chip manufacturing, too.

TSMC will fabricate Apple’s custom chips for the Mac using 5nm process technology, with production still in small volume during the first half of 2021, the sources noted, but the output will expand substantially later next year.

That news came from a second DigiTimes report alongside claims a “more affordable” 10.8-inch iPad will start shipping before the end of 2020. That matches similar reports coming out of analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, too.

If you’re using one of the devices that iOS 12.4.8 is intended for, you can install the update by opening the Settings app, tapping “General” and then “Software Update”. We’d suggest doing it ASAP because while Apple isn’t saying what the fixes are, they’re surely worth having!