offer ultra-thin devices that are intended to bring the convenience of a phone or tablet together with the versatility of a more traditional laptop. In fact, all three of those devices offer cellular connectivity, and Microsoft's and Lenovo's do double duty as a full-fledged Windows 10-based tablet.
No doubt, things have certainly improved on that front. Microsoft has invested in the technology necessary to run most Intel-based apps on an Arm-based Windows machine, making them a much more reasonable proposition., which praised Microsoft's app compatibility work and the design of the hardware, but also flagged some headaches arising from the fact that it's not based on Intel.Apple's M1 chips are based on the Arm architecture, just like those found in Windows PCs.
That's an important distinction, because it means that it's banking that M1-powered Macs will be as good or better than their Intel-based predecessors for video editing, photo processing, music creation, coding, or any other computing-heavy creative tasks. In fact, Apple's presentation showcased the potential for these new Macs to do all of those things.
Without relying on Intel and its release schedule, Apple gets the flexibility to design updated processors alongside the Macs that they will go on to power. That, in turn, means that Apple can offer new features in the Mac that might not have been possible before.