“Sal Soghoian, former Automation lead at Apple, writing for MacStories: ‘Here’s a thought experiment. Let’s imagine that Apple decided to combine their engineering resources to form app teams that delivered both iOS and macOS versions of applications,'” Rene Ritchie writes for iMore. “This, based on my understanding, is exactly what’s been happening in the software engineering division recently.”
“Getting the original iPhone and iPad to ship required enormous efforts, dedicated teams, and a ton of resource reallocation. Over the years, that resulted in some disparities. A few years ago Apple brought all if it back together under Craig Federighi, and now that same strategy is being applied to apps,” Ritchie writes. “Safari will be Safari at the code level. Mail will be Mail, Messages will be Messages, Calendar to be Calendar… you get the idea.”
“Having one team responsible for Safari, Mail, Messages, etc. on both platforms is great and hopefully means that, going forward, ‘Sent with Fireworks’ is something I’ll never have to see on my Mac again,” Ritchie writes. “But it’s also something I hope, eventually, elevates the built-in apps on both platforms in a way disparate teams never could.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
Think code convergence (more so than today) with UI modifications per device. A unified underlying codebase for Intel, Apple A-series, and, in Apple’s labs, likely other chips, too (just in case). This would allow for a single App Store for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users that features a mix of apps: Some that are touch-only, some that are Mac-only, and some that are universal (can run on both traditional notebooks and desktops as well as on multi-touch computers like iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and – pretty please, Apple – Apple TV). Don’t be surprised to see Apple A-series-powered Macs, either. — MacDailyNews Take, January 9, 2014