The ability to access more RAM will definitely be necessary in the future, but it's ARMv8's 64-bit architecture that'll start paying off immediately. Moorhead doesn't believe the industry will 'run into a 32-bit wall for three to five years.' The 32-bit wall describes the point when 64-bit processors become a must: high-end computing requires a lot of RAM. Since its release in 2007, Apple has increased the iPhone’s RAM from 128MB to a rumored 2GB in the 5s, while Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 recently broke the Android RAM record with 3GB. Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, tells The Verge 'there are no positives or negatives that 64-bits bring to the table,' aside from the ability to address more than 4GB of RAM. The iPhone’s RAM has increased eightfold since 2007 Apple’s 64-bit boast may be short-lived: Nathan Brookwood, research fellow at the consultancy firm Insight 64, agrees that Apple 'has seized 64-bit leadership in mobile devices,' but notes that it’s only 'nine to twelve months ahead of any Android competition.' So why is Apple - and everybody else - pushing for this change? To hammer that point home, less than 48 hours after Apple's presentation Samsung announced that its upcoming high-end smartphones would include 64-bit SoCs, and Intel said its new processors will support a 64-bit Android kernel. ARMv8, the architecture that Apple's new processor is undoubtedly based upon, has been out in the open for a year now, and Qualcomm, Samsung, Nvidia, Intel, and the rest are all hard at work developing 64-bit mobile processors. 'This is the first ever in a phone of any kind,' a triumphant Phil Schiller said on stage Tuesday, 'I don't think the other guys are even talking about it yet.' Yes, it’s the first, but Schiller is wrong about the competition. You heard wrong.Įveryone is hard at work developing 64-bit mobile processors You might have also heard that it's just a marketing stunt a cynical attempt to wow consumers into buying Apple's latest and greatest iPhone. In the wake of Tuesday's iPhone event, you've likely heard the news that iOS 7 and its core apps have been ported to 64-bit, and Apple's new iPhone 5s now has a 64-bit 'A7' system-on-chip (SoC) inside.

Apple mobile device support 64 bit