Microsoft plans to release Teams for Apple’s specially designed ARM processors in the coming months. Teams, originally planned for Intel-based Macs, will perform better and tax less system resources than the current version, Microsoft said this week. However, Intel Mac users won’t be left out. The new software uses Apple’s universal binary format to run natively on Intel and Apple silicon computers. Teams competitors Zoom and Cisco Webex already support Apple’s chips. Workers and companies have increasingly adopted Macs in recent years. Nearly a quarter of US corporate PCs were Macs in 2021, up from 17% in 2019, according to research firm IDC. Many workers want the option to use a Mac. Of 1,163 US workers surveyed this year by analyst firm Creative Strategies, 60 percent wanted their companies to support Apple computers. Microsoft will release a Teams desktop app for Mac with Apple silicon. Beyond their growing numbers, business Mac users are more likely to be performance-sensitive than the typical office worker, said Tom Arbuthnot, founder of training company Teams Empowering.Cloud. Many Apple-based employees use their machines for processing-intensive tasks such as image or video editing and do not want a collaboration tool to take up system resources. “[Macs] they are not cheap products, so [users] Look for a good performance,” Arbuthnot said. “There’s definitely feedback from the Mac community [Teams’] performance could be better, hence the dormant demand for it [update].” Microsoft had to update Teams to improve performance, said Technalysis Research analyst Bob O’Donnell. Video conferencing apps are already system drainers, as they use a device’s camera and microphone and burden the CPU with noise suppression and custom background functions. Without a native app, Apple’s silicon machines had to rely on emulation to run Teams, which adds to the pressure. “The whole beauty of the ARM hardware that Apple makes is that it tends to be power efficient,” O’Donnell said. “But you get the most out of it… if [program] for that inherently.” Apple users have been asking for a Teams app for Apple silicon for some time. A request for such an app on Microsoft’s customer feedback forum received 3,216 upvotes, with users complaining about the current version’s high CPU usage and sluggishness. Several noted the long delay between Apple’s silicon introduction and Microsoft’s updated implementation. Apple began shifting from Intel processors to chips of its own design two years ago, with the intention of eventually running all Macs on Apple silicon. Since then, the Intel-based PCs in the company’s lineup have beaten the Mac Pro and certain models of the Mac mini. This summer, Apple introduced laptops based on the second generation of its custom processors, the M2. Mike Gleason is a reporter covering unified communications and collaboration tools. He previously covered communities in the Massachusetts MetroWest area for the Milford Daily News, Walpole Times, Sharon Advocate and Medfield Press. He has also worked for newspapers in central Massachusetts and southwestern Vermont and served as a local editor for Patch. You can find him on Twitter at @MGleason_TT.
