“Instead of a Swiss Army Knife OS working on Mac, iPads, and iPhones, Apple just previewed a bridge that’s supposed to let iOS apps cross the OS chasm,” Jean-Louis Gassée writes for Monday Note. “One rumor died, replaced by speculation about Apple’s intentions for the iOS apps porting tool.”
“At Apple’s WWDC18 (its conference for app developers) held last week in San José, CA, Sr VP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi pounded the stage, Finally™ putting an end to the magnetic rumor of a hybrid iOS-macOS operating system: ‘No,'” Gassée writes. “Having closed one door, Federighi hastened to open a new one. Instead of an OS chimera, Apple’s software chief announced a bridge between the two related but incompatible software worlds.”
“As it turns out, last year’s Marzipan project rumors, which predicated exactly this state of affairs, were accurate,” Gassée writes. “The arrangement will benefit everyone: iOS developers will find new customers on the Mac, customers who pay multiples of $10 vs single digits for iOS apps; Mac users will be given a wider choice of apps; and Apple gets a livelier macOS store. That’s the idea, anyway. Some nuances may apply… iOS apps such as News, Stocks, and Home ported to macOS are nice, but, again, I don’t see a stampede of iOS apps crossing the bridge to macOS, not enough to move the Mac volume needle. This leaves us with two possibilities. Either the UIKit move is a titillating but unimportant sideshow, or it’s part of a larger hardware plan for the Mac.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Interim step on the way to Apple A-series-based Macs?
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:
Craig Federighi doesn’t see a touchscreen Mac in the future – June 6, 2018
Apple’s Craig Federighi details how iOS apps will run on Macs – June 5, 2018
How Apple might approach an ARM-based Mac – May 30, 2018
Will the 2019 Mac Pro be powered by an Apple ARM-based chip? – April 6, 2018
Project Marzipan: Can Apple succeed where Microsoft failed? – December 21, 2017
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
Apple, a semiconductor superpower in the making, looks to build their own ARM-based processors for Macs – September 29, 2017
On the future of Apple’s Macintosh – February 6, 2017
Apple’s Craig Federighi explains why there is no touchscreen Mac – November 1, 2016