Apple had turned quite a number of heads when it came out with its decision to ditch Intel. And now, the results of the action prove that the tech giant made a rather wise decision which fueled growth considerably in the year 2021. The decision to break away from Intel gave Apple a new window of opportunities and better space for innovation which eventually proved to be highly beneficial for the stellar growth of the company over the past year.
The What and Why
Before breaking away from Intel, Apple’s Mac design was dangerously edging the stagnant waters with its old design and repetitive upgrades which were rather monotonous. The divorce from Intel offered the company an opportunity to explore better ideas and innovations for the design. The results were brilliant. The computers launched henceforth by the company have proved to be much more exciting than before and in the context of the pandemic that closed down the world, Apple saw a stellar growth in business. Perhaps the right decision at the right time, even if it lurks in the territory of uncertainty is the key to success and growth.
Apple made the announcement of breaking away from Intel in 2020. The announcement received mixed reactions as people were a bit skeptical about Apple’s ability to power laptops and desktop computers without backing from Intel. Although the company uses in-house chips for iPhones and iPads, its computers sold over the past fifteen years were powered by Intel. The announcement invited a lot of questions. The topmost one was the effectiveness of its macOS software and whether it will work well on the apps which are designed to run on Intel chips. All these doubts and questions were put to rest with the launch of the very first M1 Apple chip in 2020. In comparison to Intel’s chip, the M1 chip was more powerful. It also offered longer battery life. It was a runaway success.
In April this year, Tim Cook gave the official statement during the company’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call. Cook stated that the M1 chip was responsible for fuelling 70.1 percent growth in the company’s Mac revenue. The saga of growth continued and in the fiscal Q3, the Mac revenue was up by a significant 16 percent. However, there was a slight slowdown of growth during fiscal Q4 owing to the pandemic that curbed the growth of a good majority of businesses. But the launch of the 14 inch MacBook Pro in October underscored Apple’s ability to adhere to the high demands of its customers.