What you need to know
- Microsoft's Office apps are already up and running natively on Apple's new Mac silicon.
- Apple showed off Word, PowerPoint, and Excel in action during its WWDC 2020 presentation.
- The new Apple-designed chips will start shipping in Macs later this year.
At its WWDC 2020 conference today, Apple announced that it is preparing to start shipping its own processors in Macs. The move will see Apple silicon replace Intel and unite the full Apple ecosystem on one platform. That will require some work from developers to get their Mac apps transitioned to run on the new platform, but it looks like Microsoft is already among the earliest adopters.
During the segment focusing on the new chips, Apple showed off Microsoft Office apps running natively on a Mac using an Apple A12Z Bionic processor. The apps looked just like the desktop Office apps you're used to seeing today, and they ran as smooth as you could expect. Check out a demo of them in action below.
Microsoft has been in-step with big changes coming to Apple platforms in recent years. It was among the first to adopt iOS' dark mode support, for example. It's not a huge surprise to see Microsoft is early in making sure the Office apps are ready for this transition as well.
Apple says that it expects the first Mac using its own silicon to ship later this year. The full transition period, Apple estimated, will take about two years.
In other Microsoft-related news coming out of WWDC, Apple revealed that it is adding support for the Xbox Elite Controller Series 2 and Xbox Adaptive Controller with tvOS 14 later this year.
For more WWDC 2020 coverage, out sister site iMore has been hard at work compiling all of the announcements and everything you need to know.
