Intel, which currently provides the chips that power Cupertino desktops and laptops, and Apple have a long and very complicated history. One of Apple's most acclaimed prognosticators has drawn a line in the sand as to when Apple will next turn against Intel.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo's claims published by MacRumors, Apple will release the first Apple-designed ARM processor-based Mac in the first half of 2021. Rumors of Apple's plans to manufacture Macs without Intel's support began in 2018 and have always seemed to come true "someday" and not anytime soon. This prediction by Kuo changes that.

Aside from the supply chain cost benefits to Apple that could trickle down to consumers, the key benefits to you are the possibility of longer battery life, and of other Apple devices such as the iPhone (which runs on Apple's own ARM-based chip) including greater integration with software.

A potential major drawback of ARM chips is the potential for software incompatibility issues with existing apps. Hopefully, hints (or more definitive news) during the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June will give developers at least a year's notice.

In discussing the big picture news about Apple's own chip manufacturing, Kuo mentioned the ARM-powered Mac: "We expect Apple's new products in the next 12-18 months to be a new 2H20 5G iPhone, a new 2H20 iPad with a mini LED and 1H21 new Macs with in-house designed processors, including 1H21 new Macs with in-house designed processors, and we expect them to use processors made on the 5nm process." For those counting at home, the current iPhone uses a 7-nanometer+ process chip.

Last year we heard that this change could happen as early as 2020, but since rumors of ARM-powered Macs are still faint, we are not betting that they will appear before the New Year.