f you are still holding onto an older Intel-powered Mac, Apple is making it clear that your runway has ended. The company has begun notifying developers that Mac App Store applications requiring macOS 13 or later can officially drop x86 support entirely. Where creators once had to ship bulky universal binaries to accommodate legacy machines, they are now free to build exclusively for Apple Silicon.
In guidance issued to developers, Apple framed the move around efficiency: stripping legacy x86 code shrinks download sizes and simplifies ongoing software maintenance. Developers only need to switch their target build architecture to "arm64" to leave Intel behind. While existing Intel hardware will retain access to the last compatible release of any given program, upcoming updates, bug fixes, and new features will simply bypass those older machines.
This shift delivers an unmistakable signal to both everyday users and enterprise fleets: keeping x86 hardware on life support is no longer practical. As developers rapidly transition to arm64-only binaries across the Mac App Store, your daily software tools will freeze in place. Upgrading to M-series hardware is no longer a luxury for power users—it is now the baseline requirement to stay current.