[totalZero]

Apple is 15% of the personal computer market, if I'm not mistaken. Their intention to abandon x86 isn't a clarion call for the obsolescence of x86.

Personal computers generally go where Windows goes. Heck, that's arguably part of why Apple left PowerPC for Intel in the first place. Apple has tremendous impact on design, form factor, and other visionary steps that the market takes. I do not deny that. Still, in terms of hardware and the development ecosystem, Microsoft simply has a lot more market inertia than does Apple.

This is nothing like 64bit vs 32bit. That was a difficult (MacOS didn't drop 32bit app support until Catalina) but obvious (unless you hate RAM) leap forward. In contrast, Apple Silicon is a leap sideways whose opportunity arose because Intel's flagship process node has had a rough few years. There may be inherent advantages to Apple Silicon as a technology, but nobody should make the unproven assumption that Apple Silicon is universally superior to any and every possible TSMC 5nm x86 chip.

[garciasn]

They are roughly 15% of the US market and about 7% globally.