There have been some potentially game-changing rumors surrounding Apple lately. Early in April, it was reported that the tech giant might soon part ways with Intel and begin producing its own chips instead. Apple analysts saw this as a potential hint that the company might be working towards merging their desktop and mobile operating systems, MacOS and iOS. This would open the door for developers to code software that could work seamlessly with Macs, iPhones, and iPads.
But on Thursday CEO Tim Cook shot down hopes of this happening in one fell swoop. In an interview with the The Sydney Morning Herald, Cook said that he believes Apple’s desktop and mobile devices should remain completely separate systems. “This merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don’t think that’s what users want,” says Cook. This news was quickly shared on Apple’s subreddit, where many of the company’s fans had other thoughts.
“From a user perspective it makes no sense to have a totally different user interface with everything in totally different locations just because the form factor is different,” writes redditor sidyvu536. “Apple [needs] cohesion across the platform. They need one OS, written by one team.”
The Reddit-user goes on to compare multiple Apple devices that have a completely different operating system for no good reason. Cook addressed this concern in his interview with the The Sydney Morning Herald and said that each device “is incredible… because we pushed them to do what they do well.”
However other redditors believe that too much has already gone into MacOS and iOS for Apple to backdown from either of them.
“There is too much riding on the Mac,” explains B3yondL. “While Windows is popular with the general public, Silicon Valley basically runs on Mac. Google has banned Windows and they default to macOS, IBM uses Macs, I reckon Amazon, FB, and MS employees mostly use Macs too.”
Bridging the gap between these two operating systems would involve building a whole new OS that fuses the two. As B3yondL mentioned whole companies are wholly reliant on the MacOS ecosystem and completely replacing it would be costly and burdensome.
While a complete merger might not happen any time soon, some users just want slightly more compatibility to make their Apple devices interlock with each other better.
“iOS and MacOS don’t need to join,” comments Shamrock013. “They need to connect with each other better…and Apple is getting there.”
The speculation that Apple might completely stop using Intel chips is a sign that their devices might see higher levels of compatibility in future updates. However, the greatly-hyped full-OS merger seems to be only a dream.
