Apple's rumored switch from Intel chips to Apple processors using ARM technology may be touted in the press as a great new change The promise of longer battery life and thinner MacBooks is appealing, especially as the MacBook Air and Pro designs are slowly showing their age But there may be hidden downsides to this major change

We expect to learn a lot about Apple's plans for ARM-based Macs at Monday's WWDC 2020 conference But ahead of the official news, to gauge the potential impact of this technology, we asked Brianna Wu, CEO of independent gaming studio Giant Spacekat and co-host of the Rocket podcast, about the possible risks of Apple's ARM future I asked her about

Wu's concerns are rooted in what she sees as one of Apple's frayed relationships with its users Butterfly "If you thought the keyboard was bad, this seems worse" She said, "If you look at 3D compositing software, 3D modeling software, professional software for special effects and video compositing, you can see that the ecosystem of these software is disintegrating in deeply unreported ways

And if the transition to ARM happens on every Mac, it will be bad news for users of these ecosystems Specifically, Wu told me, "I think the truth is that if Apple moves to ARM, those apps will disappear completely"

Why would that be such a big blow? You can find the applications at Windows to macOS is a time-consuming but feasible conversion If you're asking us to refactor all of our applications using Apple's tools natively and refactor all of that code in Swift [Apple's coding language], that's a much bigger ask" [If you are trying to develop a game using the Unreal Engine, there is a fork for macOS, but it runs dramatically worse than Windows It's so bad that most people don't use it When I saw reports earlier this week that a 12-inch ARM MacBook could be released this year, I figured third-party app developers wouldn't have much time to adjust" Wu agrees, pointing out the flaws in forcing x86-based Mac apps to emulate on ARM systems For professional apps," Wu said, "asking them to go through a translation layer would obviously take a big hit on performance as well I think [this year's ARM MacBook] is theoretically doable Yes, it's possible," she continued Of course it is"

We agreed that Apple could easily take the Mac Pro and iMac Pro out of the ARM revolution We agreed that Apple could "make a more powerful battery, a thinner machine, reduce Apple's chip manufacturing costs, and lower the price to consumers Apple has no concerns about batteries in desktop Macs, and the high price of the Mac Pro shows that Apple is in no hurry to make it cheaper

Apple Arcade has been a success for Apple, and the move to ARM will make it easier for all Apple Arcade games to appear on the Mac But that is not the be-all and end-all for games on macOS

Wu told me that the average user "will certainly notice fewer AAA games appearing on macOS Games like Final Fantasy XIV and Tomb Raider It makes sense To have to convert such huge games from x86 to ARM, or risk a drop in performance, seems like a risk that studios will be increasingly unwilling to take

"Look at the adoption of Metal in macOS," she continued, "think about how many native games and applications for Windows have been ported to Metal So I think this will further discourage people from developing applications for the Mac"

Speculation about Apple Glass, Apple's rumored augmented reality (AR) headset, is heating up Wu also sees this kind of story and wonders how it can be aligned with the ARM Mac: "If Apple's next 20 years are about AR (augmented reality), how does further hampering the 3D ecosystem that is hanging on life support What are the benefits?

One would have to expect that Apple Glass developers, like Unreal Engine developers, will be relegated to using PCs She noted that "macOS has a version of Maya [a 3D computer graphics application], but the performance is so bad that most people will use Windows"

It sounds strange but makes sense that Apple would be willing to lose its high-end developer base to create an ecosystem of apps for Apple Glass If Apple were to launch an AR product in five years, how would developers be expected to work on AR on a Mac if they don't have access to the industry standard tools of the past 20 years?

The way forward might include Apple entering a market that competes with Maya That may take a while

"The message to Apple is that even with all the money in the world to create a 3D development tool, it will take at least 10 years to create something that can compete with Maya

Nevertheless, there are good reasons for Apple to take a stab at this industry Wu told me, "The 3D software space is one that is in dire need of disruption" If Apple can do well by operating in this space and putting out competitive products, it could do very well" But destroying the Mac Pro and iMac Pro is not a good way to get there"

Wu said, "I think the Mac Pro is the best way to get there, and the iMac Pro is the best way to get there

The more I think about it, the more I worry about the quality of apps if developers are forced to maintain both ARM and x86 versions That's why I can't wait for WWDC 2020 to see what Apple's ARM roadmap will look like