“and merge the iPad and Mac—at least their operating systems.”
From Mark Gurman’s Fully Charged, posted Wednesday to subscribers of Bloomberg Technology:
The company seems to have done everything it can to delay the inevitable. Over the past few years, it has danced around the idea of combining the Mac and iPad software ecosystems—to a confusing degree…
For years, Apple has said it won’t combine the two platforms as doing so would dilute the best parts of each. A more cynical perspective (and one certainly discussed at the highest levels of Apple) is that combining the products would dilute sales rather than functionality. The concern here is that consumers might just buy a single iPad or Mac, instead of both.
We’ve now reached the point though that not combining the platforms could do more harm than good. Managing two distinct operating systems and software ecosystems for devices with increasingly similar hardware underpinnings is far more work than necessary for Apple, developers and consumers.
My take: There’s some merit to the more cynical perspective.
And I’m disappointed that PED would give credence to this stupid idea as a ‘cynical ploy’.
“…. My take: There’s some merit to the more cynical perspective.”
Possibly, there’s some merit. It has absolutely no bearing on my owning both hardware devices. I crave a large desktop machine to do work and have supplemental writing materials and notes spread around me. The iPad is what I retrieve to relax with on the couch, back patio or working in bed. I love the mobility of the iPad AND I love the hard-at-work mode of my desktop. My biggest disappointment yesterday with the presentation was Apple not having a 27 inch iMac ready. These are two different devices for two different purposes in my life no matter if they run the same OS, which I hope they do soon.
Did Apple say this? I would guess it’s not far more work. Apple is awesome at making complexity easy so managing two distinct systems with multiple variants of each is not a problemo for them.
If anything, a Consumer would be attracted by Apple’s multiple offerings of OS’s that work appropriate to the device in hand (sorry for that pun). Because of the low learning curve and “what’s an OS, I just need this thing to work beautifully for me”
Has Apple delayed? This transition takes time, first for the chip, then Apple’s software OS and tools, and more most importantly, 3rd party SW.
Maybe in a year to two, 3rd party software will complete the migration.
Maybe they could have released a an M1 power Mac a bit earlier.
I can do lots of content creation on my iPad; take notes, make sketches, modify a Keynote, add a few numbers to a spreadsheet. But for the heavy lifting I have a 27″ iMac on the desk with extended storage options, a scanner, external monitor, nice keyboard and such.
iPad has the main benefit of portability and touch. iMac with Mac OS is for tackling different jobs. When I make a training video I probably use almost a dozen programs, often with several on screen at once. I’m accessing lots of files. I use proxy icons and AppleScript. These are not coming to the iPad.
I wonder if Gurman even uses a Mac?
Merging the two? Big mistake.
Bloomberg reveals the depth of its technical ignorance with this article.
Perhaps Bloomberg should rip off the bandaid and no longer make a distinction between its writers and its editors, which would make sense because both demonstrate similar levels of incompetence. This would save the company money without affecting its journalistic quality in the slightest.
There’s a hilarious scene in one of the Star Trek movies where Scotty tries to use a mouse as a microphone. Why? Because the computer is wicked smart, so peope just talk to it to get what they want. But clearly Scotty hasn’t had to actually draw or type or watch what he’s saying in the presence of an always-listening computer in a very long time….
Maybe that future will be possible one day. But our present forays in that direction (example: Alexa) aren’t too encouraging as of yet, at least not for those who value personal privacy, or really need to get some work done.
With Gurman, Hall, and Sacconaghi do you have the: “Three Musketeers” or the “Three Stooges?”