“In the last few weeks, both my colleague Jason Snell and I have looked ahead to what Apple might be envisioning for the future of its devices,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “I’ve opined on ARM-powered Macs; Jason’s wondered about the possibility of a laptop running iOS. In a recent conversation — on our secret podcast, which you should check out — we started to put some pieces together and conjectured that maybe these aren’t two different stories but rather one larger tale of what Apple’s future might hold.”
Moren wonders, “What if, to paraphrase the late Steve Jobs himself, these aren’t two platforms, but one platform with a bunch of devices?”
“This isn’t necessary about the Mac getting iOS-ified anymore than it is iOS getting Mac-ced. This is about Apple taking what it’s learned from the last thirty-plus years of the Mac and the last decade of the iPhone and trying to create something new from the ground up,” Moren writes. “So, instead of, say, considering tablets and laptops two entirely different platforms, what if they were two devices built atop a single platform — the same way that laptops and desktops both run macOS or phones and tablets both run iOS. The same software platform, different hardware.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
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
SEE ALSO:
On the future of Apple’s Macintosh – February 6, 2017
Tim Bajarin: I see Apple moving many users to an iOS-based mobile device over the next 3-4 years – November 7, 2016
What comes after OS X? – January 9, 2014
It’d give Eddy more time at the beach too, which would then likely mean rehab as well.
For doing real work I find IOS to be difficult. I create a document on my Mac and send it to my wife iPad and the border disappears. I try to create a Pages document on the iPad and it is an order of magnitude more difficult. Simple things like putting a border around the page. Having had a Mac since 1984 I am one of those who boast about not needing to read instructions. That simply does not work with IOS. The experience has moved closer to a Windows experience than to a Mac experience. It no longer “just works”
When a company is awash in money, they stop caring as much.
I can relate to that there are still areas where I would rather work on my Mac than my iPad though it does work the other way too. I must admit I had expected more convergence by now and I have already spelled out my own vision of how I would like to see them work seemlessly together for illustration purposes, so won’t derail it again. Considering how much more control Apple has over its platforms, hardware and OS and the power of its silicon over the opposition it is a little frustrating that they haven’t truly pushed that advantage home when developing innovative ways to bring it all together more seamlessly while keeping the advantages of each uncompromised and intact. We know a lot of that is what I deem a formally understandable but increasingly shortsighted wish to not affect sales of one product/platform by another but done well it could actually promote both equally as in my cooperative illustration scenario.
Its getting there though..
Remember Rome was not built on one day.
Ios has come a long way.. specially ios 11 on ipad.
Please Apple, do NOT morph MacOS into iOS!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I use a mac computer, I want a real OS running it, not some touch-screen computer with a candy-assed operating iOS system on it with limited configurability (ex, the toned down disk utility in MacOS).d Nor do I want giant Window-10 like icons littering the screen that I have to push with a finger to active themd.
(Note: I like iOS 11 on my iPhone 7. And I like Mavericks on my MBP).
Keep em different please…