There’s been a bit of disappointment about how Apple’s new ARM-based Macs don’t natively support Windows (lack of Boot Camp), but that could change in the near future.
In a recent interview with Ars Technica, software engineering chief Craig Federighi clarified that this isn’t a technical issue, as Apple’s M1 chip is fully capable of running Windows 10 on ARM – the real problem is that Microsoft hasn’t agreed to license that version of the OS to anyone aside from OEMs.
“[…] that’s really up to Microsoft,” Federighi responded when asked about Windows running natively on M1 Macs. “We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.”
Aside from the lack of 64-bit x64 app support (which is reportedly coming soon), Windows 10 on ARM functions similarly to the standard version of the OS. There’s no indication of whether Microsoft will license it out to Apple, however—as some users on MacRumors have pointed out, doing so might increase the popularity of MacBooks for the Windows crowd, which could negatively impact its own Surface devices.
“Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to OEMs,” a spokesperson told The Verge this summer. “We nothing further to share at this time.”