Microsoft has made a big deal about releasing its newest lineup of ARM-based PCs, which appear to be testing in the same ballpark as the M3. With the arrival of the M1, Apple caught the rest of the industry with its pants down. To compete, Microsoft needed an ARM-based platform, which it had been working on for a long time but really wasn’t ready for prime time.

This new lineup feels like a response to Apple’s M1 chip. In terms of processing, they appear competitive with the base M3 chip in performance. Moreover, several manufacturers are getting ready to adopt this platform with hardware that will be released as early as next month. That means there will be tablets and PCs with similar attributes to Apple silicon but running Windows. Microsoft is branding them as Copilot + PCs, with an emphasis on AI (like everyone else seems to be doing these days).

The above link contains videos and links to manufacturers, so if you’re curious about this, I recommend checking it out.

The net result of this will be that we get a lot of new hardware that runs in the ballpark with the M3 MacBook Air. It will be running Windows, but ultimately I think the competition will be good for Apple, and maybe encourage them to take a few risks with the types of platforms they use with their M-series SoC.