14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied the rumors that the company is planning to merge the iOS and macOS software into so-called universal apps.
At the end of last year, Bloomberg broke the news that Apple is working on a project dubbed "Marzipan" to combine iPhone, iPad and Mac apps into some sort of universal apps that would work on all platforms the same. More specifically, the plan was to make iOS apps work on Apple's macOS operating system, which lacks essential apps.
While the idea of universal apps might have been appealing to the end users and application developers alike, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied that the company is working on such a project, saying both iOS and macOS ecosystems have their own benefits and play their own roles, and that a merger between the two wouldn't do anyone any good.
"We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other," Tim Cook told the Sydney Morning Herald in the interview. "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," added Cook. "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."
The idea of universal apps is still appealing to many
Most probably the rumors of universal apps started when Apple released a controversial iPad commercial last November (see it at the end of the article) entitled "What's a computer?," suggesting that with the iPad Pro and latest iOS 11 mobile operating system, a post-PC world may be closer than you think.
We don't know about that, but the idea of universal apps is still appealing to many, similar to how many iOS apps have their Apple Watch counterparts. Maybe Apple will try to create some sort of container to let you run or emulate iOS apps on your Mac, if you're into that sort of thing, but we think Apple shouldn't merge both worlds into one.
