iPhone OS + OSX = ?

[guycross]

Hey guys,

Maybe I am repeating something that's already been said but...

Has there been discusison here about the possibility of OSX or the iPhone OS not being the future of Mac but a single unified OS for desktop/mobile hardware.

Obviously Apple don't feel OSX is up to the job right now or they would have used it on the iPad.

And the iPhone OS on a regaular notebook would be a joke.

SO do you think this will happen?

I do.

 

[jabingla2810]

No

OSX is designed for a mouse and keyboard input

Ipad OSX is designed for touchscreen input on a 9" screen

Iphone/Ipod OSX is designed for touchscreen input on a 3.5" screen

They work and are designed to compliment their respective hardware.

Ever tried to use Windows Mobile 6?

A tiny start menu and task manager on a small touch screen device?

Forget about it

 

[stridemat]

Obviously Apple don't feel OSX is up to the job right now or they would have used it on the iPad.

The desktop version of OSX would not have worked well on the iPad as its not meant for touch input. In the future I could see both OS merging into one but not before the desktop OS client takes greater usage of multitouch (supported by hardware).

 

[macduke]

No

OSX is designed for a mouse and keyboard input

Ipad OSX is designed for touchscreen input on a 9" screen

Iphone/Ipod OSX is designed for touchscreen input on a 3.5" screen

They work and are designed to compliment their respective hardware.

Ever tried to use Windows Mobile 6?

A tiny start menu and task manager on a small touch screen device?

Forget about it

Actually, they will probably converge because most Apple products in the future will use multi-touch screens. It is inevitable. I understand your argument but it won't hold water when they all use touch screens.

 

[Alchematron]

Steve Jobs wrote:

Forget about it

Sent from my iPad

 

[DoFoT9]

^^ lol alch

one thing stopping OSX from being put onto iPad, different CPU architectures! its NOT possible.

 

[richard.mac]

… Obviously Apple don't feel OSX is up to the job right now or they would have used it on the iPad. …

no not obviously. Mac OS X forms the basis of Macs which are the heart of Apple's business model.

OS X is a desktop OS and Apple designed the iPad hardware around a touch OS like the iPhone's. a touch OS is a much better user experience for the iPad than adding touch elements to a desktop OS.

 

[eawmp1]

Yet another person who doesn't get it. Move along folks.

 

[guycross]

Steve Jobs wrote:

Forget about it

Sent from my iPad

LOL


I am imagining SJ saying that in an old time gangster style...

meaning then -- it's bound to happen

 

[sassenach74]

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Yet another person who doesn't get it. Move along folks.

Actually I think it's you who didn't understand the OP. Nowhere did he ask if OSX as it is today can be used on the iPad. Might want to read it again.

I'd say there is a good chance that there becomes one universal OS for the mobile & desktop devices......but quite some time in the future.

 

[guycross]

I think the concept is that you would start with a blank canvas...

I can really see future MBPs being based around two capacitive touch-screens hinged together, with some kinda haptic response to reflect a more "typewriter" style keyboard.

Then having a multitouch laptop, and iPhone/iPad on multitouch would certianly make a unified OS a real option.

RE CPUs - Thats a really valid point - so how long before Apple have the entire suite of Apple hardware rocking Apple CPUs again???

 

[DoFoT9]

I
RE CPUs - Thats a really valid point - so how long before Apple have the entire suite of Apple hardware rocking Apple CPUs again???

never. the CPU manufacturer that apple bought only makes mobile (as in mobile mobile) chips - for hand held devices.

 

[yyy]

My prediction: we will mostly use hybrid operating systems in the future, that is, the operating system will be able to work in mobile or full mode and provide the appropriate UI to any screen you connect to it. I wouldn't be surprised if many people would only carry a "phone" and use it as their one and only computing device since these devices will be advanced enough to be used as ordinary computers. You'll be able to carry a device which looks like a laptop but doesn't have any computer inside, and just insert the phone into it when you need a bigger screen - the UI will change accordingly.

That is why I think most of the mobile OSs would vanish in the future and the rest would merge with desktop-class OSs.

 

[goosnarrggh]

If we believe the explanation Apple gave when the iPhone was first announced, the desktop version of OSX and the iPhone OS are already derived from a common set of core source code, albeit optimized for their various intended purposes.

The most obvious difference from the end user's perspective is that the GUI and human interaction layer that is applied on top of the core OS on the desktop version is presented differently than the GUI layer that is used in the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad variant.

But at their core, apparently, they are already essentially two different branches of the same OS.

 

[goosnarrggh]

never. the CPU manufacturer that apple bought only makes mobile (as in mobile mobile) chips - for hand held devices.

The CPU maker that Apple bought had a major business interest in manufacturing low power CPUs -- but not necessarily handheld class chips. Their single most important product line was actually low power consumption PowerPC-based CPUs.

RE CPUs - Thats a really valid point - so how long before Apple have the entire suite of Apple hardware rocking Apple CPUs again???

Emphasis mine.

Before the A4, when was the last time Apple actually independently deigned its own CPU in-house? (Set aside for the moment the distinction between designing the silicon implementation of a CPU and its integrated peripherals, versus designing the actual instruction processing core inside the CPU, which is still done at ARM's length.) (Pun intended.)

To my recollection, they had a long heritage of designing the chipset that surrounds and supports the CPU, but they had never before actually ventured into the CPU itself.

 

[guycross]

But at their core, apparently, they are already essentially two different branches of the same OS.

Which is a valid point - but to the end user they aren't the same at all. To developers, they arent the same either.

I was dreaming, out loud really - imagining what stuff could be like.

To my recollection, they had a long heritage of designing the chipset that surrounds and supports the CPU, but they had never before actually ventured into the CPU itself.

Yeah you are right, but didn't Apple use some hardware built by others but unique to Apple products? That's kinda what I was hinting at - but then why wouldnt a low-voltage proc work in a MBP or whatever.. and then why not in a desktop - thinking about environmental issues... maybe Apple would win some brownie points this way

 

[anthonymoody]

I posted about this exact thing on my blog yesterday, with predictions about the future direction of things on the software and hardware sides of the equation.

The short version: I *do* believe the OS's converge, effectively if not technically, and that the final user experience will more closely resemble todays iPad OS than it will Mac OSX's.

On the hardware side, I think that the iPad and its ilk will relegate 'laptops' as we think of them today to niche status (the same way that standalone desktops are today). I give it 5 years. (runs and ducks for cover

The longer version's on the blog if anyone is interested.

 

[wiliamjoan]

Hey guys,

Maybe I am repeating something that's already been said but...

Has there been discusison here about the possibility of OSX or the iPhone OS not being the future of Mac but a single unified OS for desktop/mobile hardware.

Obviously Apple don't feel OSX is up to the job right now or they would have used it on the iPad.

And the iPhone OS on a regaular notebook would be a joke.

SO do you think this will happen?

I do.

It's quite obvious that the iPhone is not running the exact same version that comes in the Tiger box. The real questions are: how much is missing, and what difference will it make to users and developers.Among Apple's own bundled apps, there are obvious departures designed to suit the iPhone's screen size and other hardware differences. The most obvious is the lack of a regular Mac Finder with a messy Desktop, a Dock, or a disk icon full of items representing files and folders.

 

[anthonymoody]

The most obvious is the lack of a regular Mac Finder with a messy Desktop, a Dock, or a disk icon full of items representing files and folders.

SO funny - two nights ago I spent literally 45 minutes on the phone with my parents (both of whom have iPhones and their own macs) walking them through the process of saving an email attachment, then finding it again to send as an attachment from a new email.

45 minutes because their desktop was obviously a giant mess of files and folders, and they had absolutely zero idea where anything was or how what we think of as the most basic principles of that particular abstraction work.

 

[eawmp1]

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Actually I think it's you who didn't understand the OP. Nowhere did he ask if OSX as it is today can be used on the iPad. Might want to read it again.

I'd say there is a good chance that there becomes one universal OS for the mobile & desktop devices......but quite some time in the future.

The "Apple don't feel OSX is up to the job right now or they would have used it on the iPad" line was the inspiration for my post. The future will likely look more like the iPhone/iPad OS than the desktop OS.

 

[RobBookPro]

I believe that the iOS will continue to evolve until it has the full functionality of OSX but will remain distinctly different from a GUI perspective.

Jobs will never allow a touch device to run the OSX desktop. This is why I do not believe the iMac will ever have a touch screen. It would be more likely that the iMac will have a 10/gui style of interface device.

The touch based all in one PC's on the market are a failure from an interface point of view. I have tried to use them in store however the lack of touch accuracy and the small features of the windows desktop make it extremely difficult to use. I found myself grabbing the mouse in order to get past a certain element I couldnt pinpoint with my finger.

However all of this is based around my idea that most computer users will no longer use computers such as the iMac or a Macbook pro. They are not very common around here, however most computer users are only interested in mail, internet, games and office apps. This will all be possible to do easily, and cheaply on ipad like devices. I know I am moving all of these tasks to the ipad when I get one simply because I dont like laptops (they are not actually portable) and I dont like sitting at this desk using the internet. I would rather be on the couch. People who need to do actual work, such as design work will continue to need a complex desktop environment and those operating systems will drift further into the professional fields and away from consumers.

There is about to be a whole generation of kids being given ipads instead of laptops to do their homework on.

Actually, they will probably converge because most Apple products in the future will use multi-touch screens. It is inevitable. I understand your argument but it won't hold water when they all use touch screens.

A computer monitor no more deserves a touch screen then a television does. We invented the remote for a reason.

^^ lol alch

one thing stopping OSX from being put onto iPad, different CPU architectures! its NOT possible.

NOT possible? I guess OSX could never run on an intel processor because it originally ran on the PPC.

Apple is a software company, if they needed the OS to run on an intel chip all they have to do is start typing.

 

[RobBookPro]

The future will likely look more like the iPhone/iPad OS than the desktop OS.

You are right. If someone wants to quickly send someone an email, they will be more likely to use the ipad sitting next to the couch they are on rather then get up and move into another room.

We are seeing Operating systems finally separate into three distinct categories. Consumer - Professional - Server.

Previously it was just Client - Server.

 

[darngooddesign]

You'd end up with one OS that's either too bloated for a tablet or too weak for a desktop.

 

[guycross]

We are seeing Operating systems finally separate into three distinct categories. Consumer - Professional - Server.

Previously it was just Client - Server.

That, my friend, is genius.

Spot on!

 

[RobBookPro]

You'd end up with one OS that's either too bloated for a tablet or too weak for a desktop.

You are basing that on todays technology. It is like a guy from the 90's saying you will never get iphone os to run on a mobile phone.

Eventually the tablets will sport some seriously crazy hardware which will still be overkill for anything anyone is going to use it for. You will never need a hexacore 3ghz processor to send an email.