We’re at the start of the Intel to Apple Silicon transition. William Gallagher at AppleInsider has an editorial on how previous Apple processor transitions can give us some indication release dates.
That new Intel Mac was released 43 days after Apple Silicon was announced. For comparison, the first PowerPC Mac to come out after the Intel announcement was the Power Mac G5 dual core 135 days later. You can argue that this is one measure of how different Apple is today, that it’s got the resources to move quicker. What you can’t argue, though, is what happened next. “We’ve got some great PowerPC products still to come,” repeated Jobs during the 2005 transition announcement. But they hadn’t. That Power Mac G5 dual core was the last PowerPC Mac to be released and the sole one to come out during that transition. We’re not saying Jobs lied and we’re definitely not saying Cook did, but both men unquestionably knew what they needed to say — because of the Osbourne effect. Apple today isn’t going to fall over if everyone stops buying Macs while they wait for Apple Silicon, but it was different in 2005.
Check It Out: Apple Silicon : Power PC to Intel Transition Gives us Timeline Hints