Apple's M1 chips inside latest Macs offer fresh opportunities. Here's what you need to know.

Just as few people bother to look under the hood when shopping for a new car, most consumers don't worry much about the processors that power their new laptops. In both cases, though, the "engines" enabling these devices can make a big difference in how they perform and what they can do.

So, the launch of a new range of Apple MacBook laptops and desktops, built around Apple-designed chips that leverage technology from a UK-based company called Arm, is worth a bit of analysis.

First, it's important to remember that the Arm-based processor technology in Apple's new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini is the same basic technology that's found in iPhones, including the new iPhone 12. The new M1 chip in the various Macs that Apple just announced is more powerful than the A14 Bionic chip used in the iPhone 12 line (it has 8 CPU cores vs. 6 in the A14, for example), but they're conceptually similar in many ways. The practical benefit of this is that these are the first Macs that have the ability to run iOS applications originally written for iPhones and iPads.

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Of course, a critical difference is that, unlike iPhones and iPads, these Macs don't have touch screens, making the process of interacting with these applications different, and likely, not quite as intuitive. Yes, the latest version of iPadOS includes keyboard and mouse support, but there's no doubt that most people who try running iOS apps on these new Macs will touch the Mac screen and be disappointed to find it doesn't respond.

It's about control for Apple, don't expect lower prices

However, iOS app compatibility is not the main reason Apple chose to put Arm-based CPUs into the new MacBooks. Frankly, the real reason is because Apple wants to control its own product and technology destiny, instead of relying on chip partners like Intel and AMD. Plus, the tremendous success they've had with this strategy in iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches has encouraged them to finally extend this approach to the Mac as well.

From a practical perspective, there were a number of reasons why Apple chose to develop the M1 chip and use it in these new Macs, all of which were on display at Apple's launch event. First, for the two notebooks, the company highlighted the additional battery life that the M1 chip brought to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (up to a 10 hour increase for video playback on the MacBook Pro with M1 versus its predecessor, for example). Some people also thought (and hoped) Apple would lower prices on Macs with its own chips, but that only occurred on the Mac Mini desktop, which is now $100 lower than its predecessor.

Transitioning could be challenging for older Mac users

From a performance perspective, Apple made some pretty aggressive claims about how well M1-based Macs can perform against their Intel-based predecessors as well as unspecified "standard" Windows-based PCs. This is an area that we won’t have any definitive answers on until real-world benchmarks and other performance tests can be run next week when the machines are released. Still, claims of up to 2x faster CPU and GPU performance and even higher application-level performance certainly sound impressive and potentially provide strong justification for Apple’s move to the new chip architecture.

Despite all these potential benefits of the Apple M1 chip, it's also important to recognize the potential challenges that come with transitioning to a new type of chip architecture. Most critically, existing Mac software has to be reworked (or in some cases, essentially rewritten) in order to function effectively on these new machines. Most Macs, like most PCs, are based on what are called x86 processors, which is the type made by AMD and by Apple’s previous CPU supplier, Intel.

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Programs written to work on x86-based computers have to essentially be translated to work most effectively on Arm-based computers, like the new Apple M1-based Macs. Apple has said that they had already done the translation, or "porting" work on their own applications, such as Safari, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand, among others, but many third-party software vendors like Adobe, most game publishers, and others, still have to do that work.

In the meantime, Apple has a software technology called Rosetta 2 (the original version of Rosetta was created when Apple moved away from PowerPC-based chips to Intel-based ones about 15 years ago) that allows existing x86-based applications to run in emulation mode, which does a form of real-time translation.

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Apple has a strong history in handling this type of transition well, but there are still questions as to how effectively this will work this time around, what existing Mac apps might break, and what hardware peripherals (which will also require new drivers to work on M1-based Macs) will function properly. In part because of these concerns, it’s interesting to note that Apple will continue to sell MacBook Pros with Intel x86-based Core processors – clearly they recognize that some people will need/want Intel-based Macs to run their existing applications.

Not all Macs will get the new chip right away

Also, while Apple was excited to announce these first Arm-based Macs, they also made it clear that the transition for the entire Mac line will likely take several years. In particular, the company's highest performing iMacs and the Mac Pro will undoubtedly continue to use x86 processors – and even see upgraded versions of them – well into 2022.

One of the other interesting potential outcomes of Apple's move to Arm-based processors is the potential positive impact it could have on Windows-based computers that use Qualcomm's 8CX processor (such as the Microsoft Surface Pro X), which is also based on Arm technology.

To date, these Windows-on-Arm PCs haven’t sold in large quantities, but Apple’s effort could be seen as further legitimizing the technology. Plus, it's possible that software translation efforts from developers like Adobe and others in moving x86-based Mac apps to Arm-based Macs could also encourage and speed up the process of moving from x86-based Windows to Arm-based Windows PCs.

The two types of Arm chips aren’t identical, so there will be extra effort involved, but it will certainly be interesting to see. Plus, all the Windows-based Arm devices include a built-in cellular modem, primarily 5G, which is an added benefit that Apple did not choose to integrate into this first-generation Mac-focused Arm processor.

Ultimately, this move by Apple is the kind of development that, ironically, the company hopes most people won't really notice. What they want to do is to continue the evolution of the Mac with new components that they believe can make their computers work faster, longer, and more effectively. It's certainly a valid strategy and one that will be interesting to watch play out over time.

USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. His clients are major technology firms including Microsoft, HP, Dell, Samsung and Intel. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Apple's new M1 chip: What you need to know