iOS 12: Apple is about to eat the Mac
Mac apps for your iPhone
I took some interest in Bloomberg‘s claims about iOS 12 this week, when, among other things, it wrote:
“The change that will cause the biggest stir: making it possible for a single third-party app to work on iPhones, iPads and Mac computers. The upgrade will be folded into the upcoming macOS 10.14 (known internally as “Liberty”) and could involve bringing to the Mac some of Apple’s own iPhone apps, including Home, which controls smart appliances.”
Liberty for all
There’s been a lot of focus in the reports following this report on the idea that iPhone apps will run on Macs, but I don’t see that as the biggest deal here.
Look at what’s being claimed: “..making it possible for a single third-party app to work on iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.”
Think about some of the higher-end Mac apps that also have iOS equivalents, particularly in the iPad space. Then think about Apple’s stated direction of travel — mobile devices to complement pro-computers. Then add a dose of what is happening across the industry.
To my mind this means the biggest thing about iOS 12 isn’t that iPhone apps will run on your Mac, but that Mac apps will now begin to work on iOS. In tandem with other claims around introduction of ARM co-processors in Macs, this is a pretty big sign that the transition has truly begun.
No wonder the software teams are gonna focus on making sure things “just work”…
Apple is about to eat its young. Computers will be trucks. And Mac apps will run on iPhones.
I think that’s a much bigger deal.
Making iOS apps work on macOS is easy — Xcode already has iOS simulators, so mainly what Apple is doing here is integrating that simulation code into the native OS and tweaking the UI to make it more seamless. One should not take the leap from there that it means iOS will necessarily have the ability to run macOS apps — that would require something akin to “Universal Binary” support with Mac apps having to be specifically compiled to generate ARM code and with iOS needing a lot more work to enable a meaningful experience. I don’t see macOS native apps running in iOS any time soon.