A report a few days ago said that Apple has been testing a brand new type of iOS/macOS device. Codenamed “Star,” the product supposedly has a touchscreen display, an ARM processor, and LTE connectivity. Pegatron supposedly made prototypes that are already being tested at Apple, that report said. Now, a new rumor has arrived claiming that Pegatron will indeed manufacture ARM-based MacBooks for Apple, but the story seems shady at best.
It’s not shady just because it comes from Taiwan tech blog Digitimes, which doesn’t have a perfect track record with Apple rumors. It’s also because this is all the post says about this ARM-based MacBook:
Pegatron is likely to land orders from Apple to produce an ARM-based MacBook model, codenamed Star with a series number N84, according to industry sources.
From the looks of it, the report seems to offer the same details 9to5Mac posted in its initial coverage, while citing the same “industry sources.” Soon after we heard about the Star project, Bloomberg blogger Mark Gurman pointed out on Twitter that the N84 codename refers to a different type of iOS product, the cheaper LCD iPhone X successor expected to launch later this year.
I’m told this “N84” device is actually the low-cost LCD iPhone that looks like an iPhone X. https://t.co/KU0xhfkkHe https://t.co/YqiGMLHacb
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) May 26, 2018
That said, it’s likely that we’re getting closer to seeing an ARM-based MacBook become a reality, and Pegatron may indeed turn out to be the company hired to assemble it. After all, we know that Apple is on a quest to end its dependency on chip makers so it can use its own chips in Mac computers just like it does in its various iPhone and iPad models. Just don’t expect it all to happen this year.
