It seems plausible to expect it to extend Windows to ARM to the Mac on an official basis. Microsoft sees Apple as a viable platform for its software and services. enterprise, while Mac sales in Q1 increased 111.5% ( IDC). Today, recent data claims Macs account for 23% of PCs sold into U.S. “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose,” he added, saying, “We have to embrace a notion that for Apple to win, Apple has to do a really good job.” “Relationships that are destructive don’t help anybody,” he said, introducing Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at Macworld Boston in 1997. “Next I want to talk about meaningful partners,” said Jobs announcing the move. It feels possible. Microsoft and Apple figured out how to do business better together years ago. It was Microsoft’s $150 million Apple investment when Steve Jobs returned to the company he founded that helped fund the iMac turnaround story. And the results, at least on Parallels figures, seem pretty good so far. All the same, I can’t help but see this as a stealthy attempt at a global beta test of running ARM-based Windows on Macs.

The catch is you must run a beta version of the operating system, which Microsoft doesn’t offer to consumers yet. This may be good enough for occasional tasks, but it's not sufficiently robust for all your enterprise’s work. In other words, Windows in VM on an M1 Mac now runs at least as well, and often bette,r than Windows runs on many commercially available Windows PCs. One beta tester cited in a Parallels statement called it the “fastest version of Windows” they’d ever used.

Not only does it deliver 30% better performance than you get running Windows 10 VM on an Intel Mac, it also uses much less energy and will run most Windows apps like native Mac apps, though some 64-bit applications may not run as well as you expect.

Parallels desktop 16 for m1