Well when you design your own CPU, you can't blame the people that made your CPU without blaming yourself. It's like that. IBM and Motorola were ultimately their own businesses, and had their own interests that weren't entirely aligned with Apple.

So if somewhere down the line Apple makes the CPUs in all of their Macs and can't compete, they have no one to blame but themselves. Right now they're not really failing to compete though, as their computers are stuck in the same holding pattern everyone else who depends on Intel is. They could switch to AMD parts, but they're trading one horse out for a horse of the same breed that's maybe a bit younger and prettier.

So if they're angling to axe their relationship with Intel down the line, at least for CPUs, why bother switching suppliers temporarily when they can switch their existing supplier out for something they designed in-house when they're ready and skip the intermediary step?

All reports I've seen over the past month seem to indicate that time is upon us. There's enough smoke that if Apple hasn't quietly passed a memo to the WSJ mentioning that they're not announcing anything of the sort on Monday by the close of yesterday, then the time is most likely now (well, Monday for the transition announcement, likely 2021 for the first shipping products).