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I am quite excited about this rumor. If only to finally find out what Apples plans with respect to ARM based Macs are :). Also, just in general it would be exci
by _ph_ 6y ago
I am quite excited about this rumor. If only to finally find out what Apples plans with respect to ARM based Macs are :). Also, just in general it would be exciting to have a real contender for intel-compatible chips on the deskop. I still can remember the times when there were several competing architectures. And obviously, Apple has the potential to create really game-changing chips, considering what they are doing with the iPhone hardware.
One thing I still find peculiar is, Apple could have had nice ARM-based computers for quite a while. They are actually selling them in the form of the iPad, especially the Pro. But what keeps people to the Mac vs. the iPad is less the hardware, but mostly the software. The decisive difference in practical terms between macOS and iPadOS are the mostly artificial software limitations of iPadOS. While Apple loudly advertices the ability to copy files from an USB stick to "Files", the fun usually stops there. App support for file exchange is still very limited, you cannot even copy music to Files or your iCloud drive and add this to Apple Music or the TV app. So I find it a bit odd that they have to create ARM based MacBooks just as a solution to a basic problem of their software.
- nradov 6y agoI expect that Apple will gradually phase out MacOS, and add more features to iPadOS that will make it suitable for content creators. It never really made sense for Apple to maintain two overlapping but incompatible product lines. I predict in a few years they'll launch a laptop running iPadOS.
- _ph_ 6y agoThe problem is, and that is what I tried to point out with my comment, that the only thing preventing the iPad to be useful for more people is, how artificially limited iPadOS is. It is a great device, but not a replacement for a computer.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoIf you look at the direction of recent releases then you can see those features being added. The latest version has trackpad support for instance. I don’t imagine much is going to change right now but I wonder what they might be planning for the next decade.
- api 6y agoIt's not trackpad support. It's the ability to run your own software. If I can't run my own code (without jumping through hoops) it is not a real computer. iOS devices are consoles.
- _ph_ 6y agoYes, since they separated the OS from iOS, development of the iPad has somewhat gone into the right direction. But it took them a decade to add mouse/trackpad support, this is moving at a far to slow speed. And the fact, that you cannot add music to your iPad on your own, shows, how happy Apple is with its limited usage szenarios, there is no good reason for this behavior. They could have made the iPad a real MacBook competitor, the hardware is up to it. Apple has decided to keep the software limited and even prohibit third parties of closing many of the gaps.
- jki275 6y agoThey're really not incompatible -- iPadOS is really just a reskinned macOS. Under the hood they're essentially the same thing. There won't be any phasing out of macOS -- it really wouldn't make any sense at all. They'd alienate all their devs.
- kalleboo 6y agoPersonally I'd prefer a release of macOS for iPads. That would actually get me to buy an iPad Pro. There's been some speculation on Twitter that for WWDC instead of releasing an ARM Mac for development purposes (for the Intel transition then loaned people Intel motherboards mounted in PowerMac G5 cases), they'd release a version of macOS to run on your iPad Pro.
- AsyncAwait 6y ago> I still can remember the times when there were several competing architectures. That was when having detailed manuals and being relatively open about your architecture was the norm. I'd bet whatever Apple releases will not be as forthcoming.