Apple Unveils Series of New Macs with 1st in-House Microprocessor

On Tuesday, Apple Inc introduced a new series of MacBook Air notebooks and other computers with its first powered by processors developed in-house.

The move that aim to tie its Macs and iPhones closer together technologically.

The new chip, called the M1, marks a shift away from Intel Corp technology that has driven the electronic brains of Mac computers for nearly 15 years.

It is a boon for Apple computers, which are overshadowed by the company's iPhone but still rack up tens of billions of dollars in sales per year. Apple hopes developers now will create families of apps that work on both computers and phones.

Moreover, the firm revealed in WWDC 2020 that it would slowly move from Intel processors to its ARM chipset in its line of personal computers and laptops. Now, it seems that the company is planning to start this series by launching its ARM-powered Mac computers.

"The MacBook Air will start at $999, the same as its predecessor, and have up to twice the battery life," Apple said.

It added, "The M1 will also power the MacBook Pro notebook, which starts at $1299, and its $699 Mac Mini computer, which comes without a monitor."

The Mini is targeted at engineers and scientists because of artificial intelligence capabilities of the new chip that usually require a graphics chip from Nvidia Corp or AMD.

The new products will be available from next week, executives said.

Shares of Apple were up about 0.2% as the event ended.

Apple has seen a boom in Mac sales due to the coronavirus pandemic, notching record fiscal fourth quarter Mac sales of $9 billion earlier this month - all of them Intel-based. In June, Chief Executive Tim Cook said Apple would continue to support those devices for "years to come" but did not specify an end-of-life date.