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Briskit

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 4, 2019
36
101
I understand that with Silicon Macs, developers will instantly have their apps available across all platforms, however, with the Catalyst technology available (which isn't commonly used for some reason?), will developers be abandoning Intel + Catalyst in favour of Arm? I know that obviously, technology and software will have to mature which takes 2-3 years (especially since google took a year to release dark mode).
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,517
19,664
While ARM Macs can run iOS apps natively, the experience is likely to be subpar for most of them. Catalyst is the way to quickly make your iOS app work better on macOS. As such, it’s difficult to make predictions.
 
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Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
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Los Angeles, CA
I understand that with Silicon Macs, developers will instantly have their apps available across all platforms, however, with the Catalyst technology available (which isn't commonly used for some reason?), will developers be abandoning Intel + Catalyst in favour of Arm? I know that obviously, technology and software will have to mature which takes 2-3 years (especially since google took a year to release dark mode).

Catalyst is still the preferred route, even on Apple Silicon Mac ports of iOS and iPadOS native apps. Compatibility with Intel Macs is a nice plus to that, but there are benefits beyond the use of Intel Macs that won't go away once they (Intel Macs) do.
 

leman

macrumors Core
Oct 14, 2008
19,517
19,664
What do you mean by this?

Probably the fact that Catalyst actually makes iPad apps behave like Mac apps, while running iOS apps on Apple Silicon literally gets you a mobile app on your desktop. If you ever used Xcode similar, you'll know how awkward it can be.
 
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Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010
6,024
2,616
Los Angeles, CA
What do you mean by this?

Catalyst has benefits beyond making iOS and iPadOS apps work for Intel. They also make iOS and iPadOS apps behave better on the Mac than they would otherwise with no modification. So, remove Intel Macs from the equation altogether and there's still a benefit to Catalyst apps. Which is to say that there's still incentive to make Catalyst apps when taking an iOS and/or iPadOS app and porting it to the Mac.

Probably the fact that Catalyst actually makes iPad apps behave like Mac apps, while running iOS apps on Apple Silicon literally gets you a mobile app on your desktop. If you ever used Xcode similar, you'll know how awkward it can be.

Exactly!
 

thingstoponder

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2014
916
1,100
Thanks, I didn’t understand the wording. Catalyst is looking a lot better this year, I hope it starts to really take off.
 
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