In recent years, many people have noticed the trend that iOS and macOS are constantly reinforcing interoperability. With the cloud networks, Apple users can share passwords, reminders, and even work schedules on both the mobile and desktop devices. Yet it seems like that the company has more plans about the interoperability of iOS and macOS.
According to the Bloomberg report, Apple plans to combine iPhone, iPad and Mac apps in push toward platform unification, with the aim to let developers expand iOS apps to Macs with macOS 10.14 and iOS 12 in late 2018. Sources told Bloomberg that Apple is working on a secret project codenamed “Marzipan”, which allows both iOS and macOS to run a so-called “universal application”. That means developers may be able to code and design an application that is compatible with Apple’s two major systems.
The project is likely to start rolling out as early as next year and may be announced at the company’s annual developers conference in the summer. Yet the sources also add that the plans are still fluid, so the implementation could change or the project could be canceled.
What’s really surprising about this news is that, literally the so-called marzipan program is almost a replica of Microsoft’s universal application platform (UWP). To address the too-little programs on Windows 10 Mobile, Microsoft puts forward the idea that, developers can design a single program to run on all of Microsoft’s devices including tablets, phones and full-fledged computers. However the plan could be considered as a failure, as the the difference between mobile-oriented apps and desktop-oriented apps is not only on the operating logic, and developers are not really interested in UWP.
This problem could be applied equally to iOS and macOS. Though these two different systems have some integration on user experience to some degree, but ultimately there is a big difference in the interaction logic and practice use. Also, even many apps are available for both iOS and macOS, but the tool kits and programming languages that developers use to code the two versions of the same app are not the same at all. We don’t know exactly what Apple is going to do and how it plans to solve those problems. But we are looking forward to Apple’s move on the app integration on its ecosystem.