“Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reports that Apple plans to give developers a way to create a single app that will work across both iOS and macOS. Apps will be able to support a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad, depending on the hardware,” Mark Hibben writes for Sekking Alpha. “Currently, there is some overlap between iOS and macOS, since the former was derived from the latter, but in crucial areas, such as user interface, the operating systems diverge. Developers of an iOS app who want to create a macOS version must rewrite a substantial portion of the app’s code.”
“Apple has clung to the view that there is no place in macOS for a touchscreen, while the Windows world has featured them for years. Yet Apple has pursued its own sort of convergence, making macOS and iOS more similar in key user interface features, as well as in underlying software and hardware technologies,” Hibben writes. “For instance, iOS 11 now features an app Dock very similar to the macOS 10.13 Dock. Underlying both operating systems is a new file system called APFS. And macOS has had ‘full screen’ app capability for some time, which makes macOS apps look and feel more like their iOS counterparts.”
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t forget the lovely Launchpad which sits in our Mac Docks, ignored like a red-headed stepchild. This article made us click it for the first time this year.
“On the hardware side, Apple began endowing its Macs with a special custom Apple chip that replicates the features of Secure Enclave, which is built into the SOC of every iOS device,” Hibben writes. “The first version of this chip, the T1, was introduced with the touch bar MacBook Pros. A second version, the T2, is present in the new iMac Pro.”
“Despite various signs of convergence, Apple has stopped well short of Microsoft, which developed the Universal Windows Platform (UWP)… It hasn’t greatly boosted developer support of the Windows app store. And it didn’t salvage Windows Phone,” Hibben writes. “Apple has much the same problem, but in reverse. Apple already has a curated, well controlled, and profitable app store for iOS. Transplanting this to macOS hasn’t been easy… Apple could afford to leave well enough alone, except that it probably has two long range objectives. The first is to channel all software development through its own app stores, including that for macOS. The second is to further unify the hardware platforms by having macOS devices use Apple’s ARM SOCs rather than Intel ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, as Steve Jobs himself said many years ago, Apple has always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything they do.
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:
Apple is working to unite iOS and macOS; will they standardize their chip platform next? – December 21, 2017
Why Apple would want to unify iOS and Mac apps in 2018 – December 20, 2017
Apple to provide tool for developers build cross-platform apps that run on iOS and macOS in 2018 – December 20, 2017
The once and future OS for Apple – December 8, 2017
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