Monday Note:

Today’s lighter fare will be another go at a now well-aged rumor — or prediction — that Apple’s home-grown ARM processors will replace x86 Intel chips as the main CPU of our Macs, a prophecy that was reinvigorated last week when notorious and prolific analyst Ming-Chi Kuo added a timeline to the prediction: Apple will make the move in the next 12 to 18 months.

This isn’t wild speculation. The iPhone and iPad have run on Apple-designed ARM chips since birth, and while early entries into the Axx line were underpowered, the latest chips created by Apple’s silicon design teams have yielded laptop- or even desktop-class performance. Couple that with Apple’s well-established drive towards vertical integration and control over its products’ key technologies, and the “rumor” seems inevitable.

Last year, I concluded that a move to the ARM processor created two serious challenges for the Macintosh line, two forks in the product line.

I’m not really much of a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” kind of guy so I ignore most of the rumours but this switch seems inevitable.