Apple’s new facility is already scouting to fill positions in several categories, including performance validation in non-iOS workloads, memory controllers, coherency protocols and memory subsystem.

The big question here is whether Apple is interested in expanding its Touch Bar to a size similar to what Asus has done. The chances of that happening depend on Apple’s willingness to lean towards blending functionalities across iOS and Mac OS, as touchscreens on Macs are still a hot button issue for Tim Cook especially, as he frequently reiterated the company’s stance against any type of iOS/Mac OS convergence.

Macs are known for their longevity, but that very same fact may turn to be a curse, at least once per generation, especially at a tipping point for technology, when things begin to change very fast.

British chip manufacturer ARM has recently announced production of its Cortex A76 processor, promising laptop-class performance, by its tentative release in 2019.