Tim Cook says Apple won't merge Mac and iPad
Amid rumors that Apple is working on cross-platform software initiatives to bridge its two most popular systems, CEO Tim Cook is denying speculation that the company will eventually weld the two platforms together.
"We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other," Cook told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published on Thursday. "Both are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises.
"So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that's not what it's about. You know it's about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don't think that's what users want."
In December, rumors surfaced about project "Marzipan," a plan to allow iOS apps to run on Macs, controlled by mice, keyboards, or trackpads. The effort may be intended to foster better support of the Mac App Store, which hasn't done nearly as well as its iOS counterpart -- but is more probably something like the "fat binary" or "universal binary" approach that was needed for the migration from 68K to PowerPC and then from PowerPC to Intel.
More recently, Apple was reported to be working on project "Kalamata," an effort to design custom processors for Macs. New silicon coupled with backwards-compatible software OS implementations could conceivably make it easier to develop a flexible platform, though no results are expected until at least 2020.
Cook also addressed the implications of a comment he made several years ago about using an iPad as his primary device. For the moment, he uses a mix of hardware.
"I generally use a Mac at work, and I use an iPad at home," the CEO said. "And I always use the iPad when I'm travelling. But I use everything and I love everything."
"We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other," Cook told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published on Thursday. "Both are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises.
"So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that's not what it's about. You know it's about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don't think that's what users want."
In December, rumors surfaced about project "Marzipan," a plan to allow iOS apps to run on Macs, controlled by mice, keyboards, or trackpads. The effort may be intended to foster better support of the Mac App Store, which hasn't done nearly as well as its iOS counterpart -- but is more probably something like the "fat binary" or "universal binary" approach that was needed for the migration from 68K to PowerPC and then from PowerPC to Intel.
More recently, Apple was reported to be working on project "Kalamata," an effort to design custom processors for Macs. New silicon coupled with backwards-compatible software OS implementations could conceivably make it easier to develop a flexible platform, though no results are expected until at least 2020.
Cook also addressed the implications of a comment he made several years ago about using an iPad as his primary device. For the moment, he uses a mix of hardware.
"I generally use a Mac at work, and I use an iPad at home," the CEO said. "And I always use the iPad when I'm travelling. But I use everything and I love everything."
Comments
In other words, "We are in the process of merging the two." Putting an ARM chip in the macs and running the OS on the ARM isn't the same as merging, I suppose...
"Both are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises"
Yes, you make compromises. You make trade--offs.
That's exactly what the iPhone is.
Compromises and trade--offs themselves aren't the problem. The results of them might or might not be. That's why you make those trade--offs and compromises in the first place.
It would have been better to just say we have no plans to merge the two and leave it at that.
I'm good this way. Rather the powerful A series in a clamshell then trying to make macOS on a tablet.
The engineering and quality of the hardware is still second to none. Take the iPhone X. Not only did Apple raise the bar for OLED displays, in order to achieve the near bezeless design, they had to employ a difficult and expensive technique of folding the edges of the display that other manufactures won’t do because it is too expensive. This is the kind of innovation that is invisible to naked eye, and one that can’t be evaluated using crude, third party device breakdowns.
Moreso, consider their innovations in machine learning. While other companies rely on cloud computing to provide services, monetizing your data and thereby yourself in the process, Apple figures out how to do it using on device processors. I suspect this is also due to the extremely tight integration of hardware and OS that everybody seems to be taking for granted nowadays. Privacy is hot topic, yet no one wants to acknowledge Apple’s achievement.
I could go on and on. Is Apple perfect? Absolutely not. But they are way ahead of the field in many respects.
Wall St is a blot on society. Well, the so called Analists who just love to speak out of their backsides about things they have no real understanding of and often to the benefit of their friends who will be shorting thier targets.
Have I covered everything?
Much like comments with poor grammar and spelling.
https://daringfireball.net/2017/12/marzipan
“One user experience” is neither possible nor desirable. The truth is that this effort by Apple is almost certainly not about cross-platform applications but instead cross-platform frameworks for developers. It’s developer news, not user news.
Nope, they just know what they’re doing. You people have been squawking about a macpad since the ipad was rumored. It wasn’t a good idea. The iPad was. It still is.
Try a Dell, man. You’ll surely be happier there.