Apple Said iOS and Mac Os Won't Converge, but Could They Both Run on the iPad Pro?
The Rumors About a Potential 12.9-Inch iPad Pro Being in the Works for Apple, and Those Rumors Have Stirred up Quite a Bit of Speculation About the Future of...
The convergence question
A new article from ReadWrite has made me recognize the error in my thinking and put forth a very interesting question (and one that I wish I had come up with first): could the iPad Pro run MacOS? Last week, Apple's software engineering VP Craig Federighi essentially made it clear that iOS and Mac OS will not be converging, ever. He said:
To say [OS X and iOS] should be the same, independent of their purpose? Let’s just converge, for the sake of convergence? [It’s] absolutely a non-goal. You don’t want to say the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS. At the same time, you don’t want to feel like iOS was designed by [one] company and Mac was designed by [a different] company, and they’re different for reasons of lack of common vision.
Apple doesn't see the value in this, apparently; but, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't working on converging the two platforms to a certain extent. Apple's execs made it clear that the two operating systems would continue to be separate systems, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they won't exist on the same hardware, nor does it mean that we won't ever see data sharing between the two systems similar to what Ubuntu has planned.
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The iPad Pro question
It’s not an either/or. It’s a world where you’re going to have a phone, a tablet, a computer, you don’t have to choose. And so what’s more important is how you seamlessly move between them all. It’s not like this is a laptop person and that’s a tablet person. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Of course, right at the outset it is clear that Apple doesn't want to cannibalize its Mac line of products by extending iOS too far, which is probably a solid idea and really the number one reason why Apple probably wouldn't put Mac OS on an iPad Pro. Apple has already seen its iPod sales plummet because of cannibalization from the iPhone, and it's hard to say how much longer iPods will be around. Tim Cook has admitted that iPods are on the way out as well.
So, let's take a look at what we know: we know that Apple will not be merging iOS and Mac OS into a single operating system; we know that iOS will not be found on a Mac; we know that Apple wants you to be able to "seamlessly move between" your devices; and, we know that Apple never mentioned anything about Mac OS on an iPad, despite there being plenty of opportunities during the Macworld interview. But, we also know that price concerns and worries over cannibalizing Mac sales will likely be on the top of the list for Apple.
This doesn't add up to a smoking gun, but it seems obvious that Apple wants to create more sync points between iOS and Mac OS. iCloud could be the vehicle for these sync points, but it could also be that Apple wants to create connection points for the systems on the same hardware. Of course, this being Apple, there will likely be restrictions. Whereas the plan for Ubuntu is to have each app translate from the mobile environment to desktop, Apple is more likely going to leave certain apps where they are. Your Safari tabs will already sync across, and it would be easy enough to sync across any iWork files, or media that you may be listening to/watching in iTunes. But, the question would be in whether other apps would be given the same functionality.
Sarah Jenkins is a veteran tech journalist with over 12 years of experience covering artificial intelligence, mobile innovations, and digital ethics. Her insights have appeared in leading technology publications worldwide.
