Hi all. Do you think we’ll see the M series of chip migrate over to the iPad in the future or do you think Apple will stick with the A series for both phones and tablets? Personally I think there’s a 50/50 chance a couple of years from now since Apple likes to tout the flexibility of their tablets. But I’m no Apple (or tech) expert and I would like to hear everyone else’s thoughts.
That’s a good question. The M chip is essentially an evolution of the A chips on iOS devices — that’s why the new Macs can run iOS apps. And the new MacBook Airs have the same M chips as the Pros but throttled for better battery life and no fans. Could Apple turn the iPad Pros into MacBooks without keyboards? Throttled even further for better energy consumption? Maybe. But they could also continue the parallel evolution of the M and A chips. I can see good arguments for both approaches.
I think the answer will be no. I suspect the stuff that will make an M chip an M chip might not be so relevant for iDevices (e.g. I don't think people will need or want virtualization support). I do think that the performance of the M chip series will be in the A series though.