Apple MacBook 2018 News: Pegatron Developing ARM-Based Model?

If a new report is to be believed, Apple may be tapping Taiwanese electronics manufacturing company Pegatron to build an ARM-based MacBook model.

Citing industry sources, Digitimes reported Tuesday that Pegatron is likely to land orders from the Cupertino giant to produce an ARM-based MacBook device. The new model is said to be codenamed Star and is believed to have a series number of N84. The news outlet reached out to Pegatron, but the company declined to confirm what industry sources are claiming.

Hours after Digitimes published the story, Patently Apple called out the former for reporting about the ARM-based MacBook model even though the information was purely based on speculation made by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Gurman wrote a story early last month about Apple’s alleged plan to ditch Intel for its own chips in Mac computers, with full implementation in as early as 2020. He said that he’s learned from people familiar with the matter that the main reason for the switch has to do with the tech giant’s strategy to make all of its devices — Macs, iPhones and iPads — work seamlessly and more similarly together.

The rumored switch is also believed to be a product of the years of significant improvement of the ARM-based processors that Apple has been using in its iOS smartphones and tablets, the Apple TV and the Apple Watch smartwatch.

By equipping its MacBooks with ARM-based processors, Apple could allow Mac computers to run iOS apps. This way there’s going to be a seamless experience between the desktop platform and mobile. This could have been teased by the upcoming cross-compatibility feature that Apple is planning to role out this year.

As usual, Apple is tightlipped about its MacBook plans. However, this wouldn’t be the first time that Apple is going to switch to a different processor for its Macs, if ever the reports turn out to be true. As pointed out by The Verge, Apple previously ditched IBM’s PowerPC chips in favor of Intel’s processors. The late Steve Jobs was the one who announced the move back in 2005 and it was realized the year after.