New Apple silicon Macs 'could be huge' for Hollywood

Apple Next Generation Mac Macbookair Macbookpro Mac Mini
Apple Next Generation Mac Macbookair Macbookpro Mac Mini (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • A new report says pros within Hollywood are excited by Apple's new Mac lineup.
  • Many currently work on Apple's older machines, such as the Mac Pros of old.
  • It seems the new Apple silicon lineup is encouraging news for the industry.

A new report says professionals within Hollywood are excited by the prospect of the new Apple M1 chip.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Apple has unwrapped a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini, its first products using the M1, the computer makers' first chip designed specifically for the Mac. With Tuesday's news, some in Hollywood were encouraged by the potential of the new tech for many content creators.

According to Michael Cioni, SVP of innovation at Frame.io, Apple's announcements earlier this week mark the first positive change by Apple for creatives in quite some time:

Cioni believes today's announcement signals that the computer maker is "continuing its commitment to meet needs of today's creative professionals." Noting that Apple included this part of its customer base as part of today's announcement, he adds that "that's a positive narrative for creative professionals we haven't received from Apple in nearly a decade."

Cioni in particular highlighted how the M1 could improve the Mac's ability to run multiple high-powered professional tools like Final Cut, Adobe, and more simultaneously.

Cioni's sentiments were echoed by another editor, Harry B. Miller III, who said the new Mac mini "could be huge" for editors:

Veteran editor Harry B. Miller III says the new Mac minis in particular "could be huge" for the editing community. "Most of the editing industry is either on old cheese-grater or trashcan Macs. It seems to me the Mac mini with this new chip could easily and fairly cheaply replace all those old units," he says. "Fox Studios, for example, had been refurbishing cheese-graters to keep them up to date with CPU's and memory for more complex workflows. It would now be cheaper to replace them with the new Mini."

Miller, at least, plans to snag a new Mac mini, hoping that Apple's new M1 chip will speed up rendering effects and compressing and outputting video. In a statement to THR, Adobe reportedly said it was "excited" to bring Creative Cloud apps to Apple silicon, and that it would have Lightroom and Photoshop news on ARM soon.

Apple released a new Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air on Tuesday, all powered by its M1 chip.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9