How Apple's M1 chip gave the Mac a second life

Five years ago, Apple Silicon gave Apple's longest-standing platform new life. Now it looks like the sky's the limit.

- BY JASON SNELL

Given the choice, Apple would have rolled out its first custom-designed Mac chips on its own terms, probably at a high-profile event in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. But given that it was November 2020, the company was forced to release a 45-minute video (fave.co/3LybIYF) instead.

No amount of in-person theatrics would have upstaged the star of that show, the M1 processor (fave.co/3bH1g6o). Five Years later, it’s clear that the arrival of Apple silicon has utterly changed the trajectory of the Mac.

A CAREFUL START

In that first event (which you can relive in this YouTube video, fave.co/3LyblYF), Apple announced its first wave of M1 Macs: the MacBook Air (fave.co/3h67n8s), 13-inch MacBook Pro (fave.co/2PXzhbw), and Mac mini (fave.co/33ho0Wq). The Macs themselves all used the same design as their Intel predecessors, as Apple wrapped potentially scary new technology in completely familiar shapes.

Then the results of the first M1 speed tests arrived, and nothing felt scary anymore. Everything was fast, much faster than Intel, so much faster that even software compiled for Intel running in a code-translation layer via Rosetta ran just fine. In fact, the M1 was such a fast chip that, five years later, Apple's still selling the M1 MacBook Air (for $599, at Walmart, fave.co/47WMaXn). And it’s still a pretty nice computer!

Apple’s next trick was rolling out new versions of (almost) every Mac model, redesigned for Apple silicon, as well as an entirely new model, the Mac Studio. The new chips, new designs, and a pandemic-fueled increase in people working from home all sent Mac sales soaring.