Apple Announces the Mac's Transition to Apple Silicon

At WWDC on June 22, 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the Mac lineup would transition from Intel processors to Apple’s own custom silicon, describing a “two-year transition plan” for the entire product line.

What was actually announced

Rather than a single product launch, this was an architectural roadmap: Apple committed to shipping the first Apple Silicon Macs by the end of 2020, with the full lineup expected to complete the transition within roughly two years. To bridge the gap for developers, Apple introduced the Universal App Quick Start Program, letting developers rent a Developer Transition Kit (DTK) — a Mac Mini-cased machine built around the A12Z chip, the same chip used in the fourth-generation iPad Pro — for $500, giving them early hardware to test and adapt their software before real Apple Silicon Macs shipped.

Why Apple made this move

The stated rationale centered on the performance and power-efficiency advantages Apple’s own chip designs — already proven across a decade of iPhone and iPad silicon — could bring to the Mac, plus the platform-level control that comes from controlling the entire hardware and software stack rather than being tied to a third-party chip supplier’s roadmap. This wasn’t Apple’s first CPU architecture transition — it had previously moved from Motorola 68k to PowerPC, and from PowerPC to Intel — but each transition drew on lessons from the ones before it, particularly around compatibility tooling (Rosetta 2, in this case) to run existing Intel software during the changeover.

The transition’s actual pace

Apple’s “about two years” framing proved accurate — the Mac lineup completed its move to Apple Silicon within that stated window, a notably disciplined execution of a hardware transition that, historically, tends to run long across the industry.

Sources: Apple announces Mac transition to Apple silicon — Apple Newsroom, Mac transition to Apple silicon — Wikipedia