At Apple’s WWDC 2019, it’s like Marvel and DC Comics characters crossing over into the same movie. Or the Yankees and Red Sox sharing the…
At Apple’s WWDC 2019, it’s like Marvel and DC Comics characters crossing over into the same movie. Or the Yankees and Red Sox sharing the same dugout. You can hear the exasperated voice of Seinfeld’s George Costanza: „Worlds are colliding!“
Well, sort of.
One of the marquee announcements during Monday’s keynote presentation at Apple’s confab for developers was the expansion of the company’s Marzipan program — now called Project Catalyst — which brings iOS apps to the Mac. We saw dribs and drabs of this last year when Apple brought homegrown programs like Apple News and Stocks to the Mac, but the company went further by opening the program to third-party developers.
Another big change is the introduction of iPadOS, a new operating system intended to give the iPad a more PC-like experience. Apple also said the iPad will be able to serve as a second screen for your MacBook.
These features are a little wonky, like everything else at this developers conference (or any developer conference), but taken together they get us closer to the long-hoped-for reality in which Apple unifies its smartphone, tablet and computer worlds. Having iOS apps run on Macs, and having a more useful iPad, might hint at a time when Apple’s dominant mobile operating system could take over computers, too.
For consumers, this ultimately means apps and services that run seamlessly across all their compatible devices. Or having one device that can handle all their needs, from hailing an Uber or livestreaming a family reunion to docking a phone to a connected monitor to serve as a desktop.
These are just a few of the big announcements at WWDC designed to shift the identities of Apple’s various products, including improvements to Siri; an Apple Watch that works more independently of the iPhone; a new, more powerful Mac Pro; and a faster iOS 13 with improvements like dark mode.
Having a single platform running everything has benefits for developers and consumers. For developers, being able to write to one platform makes the work much simpler. For consumers, having an app compatible with any device is a dream.
Before you get too excited, though, keep in mind that Apple has previously maintained that it prefers to keep its computers and mobile devices on separate platforms.
„We did spend a great deal of time looking at this a number of years ago and came to the conclusion that to make the best personal computer, you can’t try to turn MacOS into an iPhone,“ Phil Schiller, head of Apple’s marketing, said in an interview with CNET in 2016. „Conversely, you can’t turn iOS into a Mac…. So each one is best at what they’re meant to be — and we take what makes sense to add from each, but without fundamentally changing them so they’re compromised.“
Instead, Apple is pushing a way for developers to bring iOS apps to a new platform.
„It’s a whole new way to bring new apps to the Mac,“ Craig Federighi, head of Apple’s software business, said Monday.
Other companies have tried to bridge these two worlds. Microsoft got close, packing a near-full version of Windows into its smartphones.
