Same hardware, different OS. Why?

[MacHiavelli]

Macs and iPads will essentially have the same internals, especially in terms of CPUs.

As iPads also have touchscreens (as well as trackpad input), their OS needs to be a little bit different, but why can’t iPadOS and macOS essentially be one core OS, with iPads capable of running Mac apps?

Yes, iPad apps are coming to Macs, and Apple clearly wants to make apps as universal as possible, but if a Mac developer doesn’t want to make their app universal, users are stuck with having to own a Mac... even though they might already have an iPad that has the power to run ANY Mac app.

So if the hardware is more or less going to be the same under the hood, why not create an OS that will run all apps, irrespective of iPad or Mac device? Shouldn’t the iPad and Mac have more in common than the iPad and iPhone? The iPad is touted as a Mac replacement, so why not unleash it fully?

 

[ruslan120]

Best analogy I can think of is using a similar engine in either a Mustang or a Truck or an SUV.

Similar engine, very different bodies to accommodate either sportiness, utility but lack of aerodynamics, or family travels.

Some people just want a sports car that zips along with basic tasks but others don’t mind getting a larger, heavier body to suit heavier tasks.

Also, the chips are the same right now in the dev kits, but more powerful processors are going into future Macs most likely.

 

[Bug-Creator]

They are running the same OS (iOS is based on OSX), just not the same (high level) APIs.

Sure they might merge at one point, but right now most iOS apps would suck on macOS and the other way round (without some adaptions).

MS tried it, and it was a huge success

 

[burgerrecords]

It's a good question - to me it's entirely a question of which apps are going to have substantially different usability without a touchscreen. I haven't thought of examples yet, but if it's a small developer, and it's a the iPad app is a bad trackpad or mouse experience then they should have the ability to be excluded from the Mac App store.

Perhaps a mouse is inherently a better interface device?

 

[MacHiavelli]

Many thanks to everyone above for taking time to share their thoughts and insights.

For me, an iPad Pro and a MacBook Air or Pro are very similar in form and functionality, especially with advances made to iPadOS and trackpad input.

If “pro” apps can run on Arm and iPad uses Arm, it feels a little frustrating to have so much potential held back artificially. For me, the perfect combination would be an iPad and an iPhone. Just one app would need a MacBook for my current workflow, which is a lot of cash to spend when the iPad is so close to being able to do everything I want.

Guess I will replace the app and reconfigure my workflow. Think I am probably not alone in wanting the iPad to have a little more enablement and for developers to bring their apps to iPadOS from the Mac, even if they aren’t fully fledged. Wish Apple would make it possible for them to do that by boosting iPadOS a bit more.