Won’t be an issue, Steinberg moved across PowerPC CPU’s and Intel… And frameworks are so much better nowadays that software sits on top of, people who’re working on that level you’d expect would be totally separate to those on the detailed interface and functionality work.
More concerned about Mac users who’ve invested big bucks into Mac Pro style items who may be forced into running new updates to their apps within the Rosetta 2 emulation layer. This is why i’ve moved to a windows system, can just watch from afar and not get caught up in the headaches.
As for if it’s good or bad, my understanding is that ARM still has some way to go before it’s got Intel performance. And i haven’t a clue how single core performance will be in real use, which is really important for single threaded functions that DAWs utilise. Give it a few years and if it improves the power consumption and increases productivity then great.
Intel chips nowadays really rely on the turbo boost to hit full performance, i don’t know whether the ratio is so high with ARM, or if they will be more like the older Xeon CPUs whereby you had the single core performance 24/7 without reliance on turbo boosting.
But, i don’t know… I really haven’t a clue what the equivalent cost of an i7/i9 machine would be in ARM world. Will it be cheaper? Will it make the new Mac Pro look cheap?! The only certainty is that software ‘will’ be transferable, no-one would be mad enough to obstruct that… But if it’s unstable, wow it’s gonna get messy!
I also a sneaky feeling i have that Linux may rise in the ranks with the move to ARM. Change in CPU brings uncertainty, and linux offers a cheaper, robust alternative for those who want to ‘wait it out’ on a secure system.