By calling its November product-launch event “One More Thing,” Apple seems to be dropping a hint that history is about to repeat itself.
Way back at Macworld 2006, then-CEO Steve Jobs introduced a MacBook that set a new course for Apple. This came as a “one more thing” addition at the end of his keynote. Something like that might be about to happen again.
Remember the first Intel MacBook?
At that Macworld held 14 years ago, Jobs unveiled the very first MacBook as that “one more thing.”
It was the first Apple laptop with an Intel processor. As Jobs explains in the introduction, his company was forced to phase out PowerPC processors in its notebooks because they required too much energy to run. The drain was too much for the laptops’ batteries.
The result was the initial MacBook Pro, built around an Intel processor.
A ‘One More Thing’ for 2020
Fast forward to today, and something similar is happening. Apple already announced that in 2020 it’ll begin dropping Intel chips to go with Apple Silicon — processors designed by the Mac-maker. But the company has yet to take the wraps off the first of these.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman pointed out on Twitter that if this happens at the Apple “One More Thing” event next Tuesday, it’ll be an echo of Jobs unveiling the first PowerBook with an Intel chip back in 2006.
The first MacBook Pro (the first Apple laptop to switch to Intel in 2006) was introduced as a “One more thing.” There you go.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) November 3, 2020
This is somewhat ironic because one of the main reasons Cupertino is giving up Intel now is to boost battery life for MacBooks. A goal of Apple Silicon is providing desktop-level performance in a laptop without additional battery drain — something Intel has been unable to accomplish.
Unconfirmed reports say Apple will announce a pair of MacBooks running its own processors at the product release event scheduled for Tuesday, November 13. But this isn’t likely to come as an addition at the end of the presentation. As Apple’s third product release event of the autumn, the whole event is “one more thing.”
