Apple orders 2.5 million Apple Silicon-powered MacBook laptops by early 2021

Apple has ordered 2.5 million MacBooks powered by its own chips by early 2021, indicating the company is projecting strong demand for the first Macs powered by its own chips.

Nikkei Asian Review:

Apple is asking suppliers to produce 2.5 million MacBook laptops powered by its in-house designed CPU by early 2021 as the California technology giant looks to rapidly cut its reliance on Intel chips.

To put that in context, the initial production orders for the first Apple Silicon-powered MacBooks are equivalent to nearly one-fifth of total MacBook shipments for 2019, which came in at 12.6 million units. As you know, Apple at WWDC 2020 this summer announced that it’s ditching Intel as the CPU supplier for Mac computers in favor of its own Apple Silicon.

Apple is widely expected to announce a trio of Apple Silicon-powered Macs at the upcoming “One more thing” event next Tuesday, November 10: a 13-inch MacBook Air, a 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s possible that the mentioned MacBook Air update could turn out to be a revived 12-inch MacBook that got discontinued in the summer of 2019.

Other MacBooks featuring Apple chips are expected in the second quarter of next year. The ‌Apple Silicon‌ chips slated to debut in the upcoming new MacBooks will be fabbed on TSMC’s five-nanometer process technology, just like the current A14 chip, Nikkei has learned. According to Apple’s self-imposed goal, the transition to its own chips for the MacBook lineup will happen over the next two years.