5 ms·

what if they put ios on it and not a full macos

Hamuko 6y ago
Then it's an iPad.
braythwayt 6y ago
What if they wait until all the early adopters have bought iPad Pros with magic keyboards, then release a more affordable keyboard/trackpad combo for iPad Air, and not just for iPad Pro? In essence, they already have almost everything they need, but in a new form factor. And while an iPad on a stand is less nimble than a very thin screen, detachability and a better camera are very strong features for casual buyers.
tqkxzugoaupvwqr 6y ago
They could also make the keyboard detachable so it becomes pad-like and name it MacPad.
grey-area 6y ago
The two are getting closer and closer. Witness the gradual creep of iOS apps onto Mac OS int he last couple of iterations. This will continue: https://www.cnet.com/news/macos-catalinas-ipad-apps-for-the-mac-are-here-but-the-story-is-just-getting-started/ https://www.cnet.com/news/macos-catalinas-ipad-apps-for-the-... At some point they will merge iOS and Mac OS, given that iOS makes them all the money, and is now capable enough (with a different UI toolkit) to provide both phone and desktop programs.
- Hamuko 6y ago
  >At some point they will merge iOS and Mac OS And just outright kill a bunch of applications?
  - grey-area 6y ago
    Yes, as they eventually did with the OS X transition, the 64bit transition etc They'll support older apps for a long time though, it just won't be the preferred sdk and will gradually be phased out. The situation they have right now is madness - two parallel slightly different UI toolkits and SDKs, one of which makes vastly more money.
    - Hamuko 6y ago
      >two parallel slightly different UI toolkits and SDKs, one of which makes vastly more money. And one which has a longer history. Should every Cocoa application be written in UIKit to continue working?
      - grey-area 6y ago
        Yes, in the same way as all Pascal apps had to be rewritten to the C API a long time ago, and all Mac OS 9 apps had to be rewritten as cocoa (NextStep), or all Objective-C apps will have to be rewritten as Swift as that is the new blessed SDK. In practice it won't be a huge burden as older apps will not be phased out for a long time - see the Objective-C to Swift transition - there will be a very long transition period. I'm not saying this is great for developers, I'm saying it makes economic sense for Apple and the signs are they are moving in this direction.
- jki275 6y ago
  What do you mean by “merge”? iOS and macOS are the same thing. iOS (with a different UI toolkit) is macOS.
  - grey-area 6y ago
    I mean they'll have one App and UI toolkit (probably based off ios) which handles both desktop and ios, simplifying development, making cross platform apps easier, and dramatically cutting support costs for Apple. At the moment the base OS is the same but the huge SDK used to create apps has two parallel tracks without a huge amount of overlap (though they are increasing the overlap, and encouraging things like porting from ios to Mac OS). Each SDK takes a lot of resources to maintain and support.
    - jki275 6y ago
      I don't think they'll ever do that. They would lose a significant majority of those of us who use Mac laptops to develop real software. They'll make cross-platform development between iOS and macOS easier, they're already doing that -- but getting rid of macOS (which is essentially what you're saying) isn't smart for them.

Then it's an iPad.

What if they wait until all the early adopters have bought iPad Pros with magic keyboards, then release a more affordable keyboard/trackpad combo for iPad Air, and not just for iPad Pro? In essence, they already have almost everything they need, but in a new form factor. And while an iPad on a stand is less nimble than a very thin screen, detachability and a better camera are very strong features for casual buyers.

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 6y ago

They could also make the keyboard detachable so it becomes pad-like and name it MacPad.

grey-area 6y ago

The two are getting closer and closer. Witness the gradual creep of iOS apps onto Mac OS int he last couple of iterations. This will continue: https://www.cnet.com/news/macos-catalinas-ipad-apps-for-the-mac-are-here-but-the-story-is-just-getting-started/ https://www.cnet.com/news/macos-catalinas-ipad-apps-for-the-... At some point they will merge iOS and Mac OS, given that iOS makes them all the money, and is now capable enough (with a different UI toolkit) to provide both phone and desktop programs.

Hamuko 6y ago
>At some point they will merge iOS and Mac OS And just outright kill a bunch of applications?
- grey-area 6y ago
  Yes, as they eventually did with the OS X transition, the 64bit transition etc They'll support older apps for a long time though, it just won't be the preferred sdk and will gradually be phased out. The situation they have right now is madness - two parallel slightly different UI toolkits and SDKs, one of which makes vastly more money.
  - Hamuko 6y ago
    >two parallel slightly different UI toolkits and SDKs, one of which makes vastly more money. And one which has a longer history. Should every Cocoa application be written in UIKit to continue working?
    - grey-area 6y ago
      Yes, in the same way as all Pascal apps had to be rewritten to the C API a long time ago, and all Mac OS 9 apps had to be rewritten as cocoa (NextStep), or all Objective-C apps will have to be rewritten as Swift as that is the new blessed SDK. In practice it won't be a huge burden as older apps will not be phased out for a long time - see the Objective-C to Swift transition - there will be a very long transition period. I'm not saying this is great for developers, I'm saying it makes economic sense for Apple and the signs are they are moving in this direction.
jki275 6y ago
What do you mean by “merge”? iOS and macOS are the same thing. iOS (with a different UI toolkit) is macOS.
- grey-area 6y ago
  I mean they'll have one App and UI toolkit (probably based off ios) which handles both desktop and ios, simplifying development, making cross platform apps easier, and dramatically cutting support costs for Apple. At the moment the base OS is the same but the huge SDK used to create apps has two parallel tracks without a huge amount of overlap (though they are increasing the overlap, and encouraging things like porting from ios to Mac OS). Each SDK takes a lot of resources to maintain and support.
  - jki275 6y ago
    I don't think they'll ever do that. They would lose a significant majority of those of us who use Mac laptops to develop real software. They'll make cross-platform development between iOS and macOS easier, they're already doing that -- but getting rid of macOS (which is essentially what you're saying) isn't smart for them.