The whole point of moving away from Intel,is so they can have one basic underlying OS for ALL their devices,hence saving them money. They can leverage designs for laptops from their tablets. Apple sells far more tablets and smartphones than laptops,and desktops. So think of maintaining a separate OS X ecosystem and hardware design as an additional cost for them. Their margins are dropping,so its all about cutting costs. Using an ARM CPU,they can leverage the same design teams for their phones and tablets,and the same OS,means the same software optimisation and development teams. They can cut out Intel and AMD,and make the same amount on cheaper ARM based hardware.
Apple has a history of driving down costs. They tried to scupper the UK based Imagination Technologies,who supplied most of the IP for their GPUs. They first all of a sudden stopped licensing it,then opened a new development centre nearby in Cambridge and started hiring away their engineers.....all to save a few million USD a year in licensing. All it lead to was a Chinese back consortium buying up the company,Apple obviously not getting as much headway,and then again licensing their IP. All they did is just cause Imagination to become foreign owned,people to be fired,and I doubt they saved much if any money.
They make a ton of money selling smartphone and tablet apps through their appstore. As long as the hardware works fine,the current Apple laptops and desktops will have a longer lifespan than an iPad,ie,just like most laptops. This is bad news for companies such as Apple,as it means less repeat sales,so they are doing everything to go against this.
Better to sell tarted up tablets,as they can lock you into the smartphone/tablet ecosystem which means generally shorter lifespans,ie,for the most part tablets and smartphones are more disposable. That is nothing to do with ARM itself,but just the way companies look at ARM based products to justify products which are not upgradeable or repairable.
Plus Apple has said they want to be seen as a "services company" as they see growth in "services". So what do you think will happen longterm to "OS X" then? It will eventually become an offshoot of iOS/iPad OS. Think of the MacBooks as simply being an iPad with a keyboard eventually and that is the future. They will increasingly push for software to be purchased exclusively through a dedicated app store. They will slowly ease it in,so people don't get annoyed,but it will be what you will see in a few years. If Apple is making billions from their iOS app store,then OFC why wouldn't want their "desktops" and "laptops" to do the same?? They want a cut of all software sales on their platform. They can sell the move as being for "security" and needed for "optimisation" for the new ARM based platform.
If Apple then succeeds in making its "desktop class" OS more and more integrated with its app store,wait until MS tries pushing even more of its own apps,the same way. Enjoy your "open" PCs whilst you still can(or you can run Linux).
Not UK owned anymore though. China is slowly wrestling control for the company. How long before ARM China gains majority control of their IP.
Apple tried to screw over Imagination Technologies,which lead to it being Chinese owned.
