What if Apple decided to release their “M” series processors a desktop CPUs? How would that change the market?
It would also be interesting to see Samsung Foundry release desktop Exynos chips or maybe Qualcomm “X” processors for desktop that are more powerful than the laptop chips.
p.s. I know they would never do anything like that, but it would be interesting to imagine how the market would change with more competitors
The Exynos, M series, and Qualcomm chips are all ARM architecture, as opposed to the AMD and Intel CPUs, which are x86.
Because of this, the majority of software wouldn’t natively work on them. Apple has obviously developed versions of many programs that function on their laptops, and could extend the same treatment to the hypothetical desktop product. The other chip companies do not have this benefit, and would have to develop supported software from the ground up
also, it would be really tricky to get people to buy new, probably expensive ARM motherboards (especially with Apple involved)
It would likely open up the market for arm motherboards, since they’re not the only player in the game. I think it would ultimately be a good thing, but it would probably take a decade or so to truly compete with x86-64.
Apple opening up the market would definitely give the process a kick in the pants.