“For the last few years, pundits and analysts have argued that Apple may eventually combine its mobile operating system iOS and its desktop operating system OS X,” Don Reisinger writes for Fortune.
“Both late last year and early in 2015, several reports suggested that the merger would begin on the iPad Pro, a tablet that at that time had yet to be announced. The rumors said that the iPad Pro would feature the touch integration of iOS with the power of OS X to create a higher-end tablet,” Reisinger writes. “While Apple did eventually announce the iPad Pro at a special press event last month, the company rebuffed hopes of an operating system merger. Instead, the iPad Pro runs on iOS 9 and takes advantage of some of its new features, including improved multitasking and split-screen view.”
“During an interview at BoxWorks, Box CEO Aaron Levie again brought up the issue with Cook. ‘We don’t believe in having one operating system for PC and mobile,’ Cook said, according to those in attendance. ‘We think it subtracts from both, and you don’t get the best experience from either. We’re very much focused on two,'” Reisinger writes. “Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS… believes that combining the two operating systems would mean that Apple’s entire product lineup would ultimately suffer. ‘Apple believes offering optimized user experiences for each kind of device is better than delivering a single, lowest-common-denominator experience,’ he told Fortune.”
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, Apple is right not to try to merge the two operating systems into one.
Now, is anyone in the market for a device that’s an OS X-powered MacBook when docked with its keyboard base and an iOS-powered iPad when it’s undocked?
Illustration from Apple’s hybrid Mac-iPad patent application
