OS X Mountain Lion (10.8)

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strawman

strawman

Apple removed "computer" from their name, and are slowly taking steps that appears to move OS X closer to an iOS experience, and iOS towards OS X.

They have developed a quad core arm processor, which might possibly make it into the ipad 3 (and if it has a retina display it might actually make use of that processor...). It's more likely that a macbook will come out with a their quad core arm and a version of OS X that runs on it - that runs iOS apps in a laptop form factor. Probably a year or so away from that though.

Apple is firmly in the "computer" ---> appliance camp, and if they keep traditional OS X around it'll largely be for developers producing apps for their appliances.

Right now we have OS X apps, iPhone apps, and iPad apps, and you can produce a single app that will run on iPad and iPhone. Eventually you'll be able to produce a single app that runs on all these devices, and you only have to buy it once to run it on all your iOS and OS X devices.
 
Covar

Covar

It's an interesting strategy and I'm curious to see where it winds up. Microsoft's moving along similar lines, but I'm still waiting to be convinced that the technology is where they need it to be, as fast as they seem to be barreling down that path.

I think Apple's got several advantages in their approach.
  1. They're controlling the hardware and the software. So the OS developments are much more compatible between the two.
  2. They're not afraid of dumping support. Users will either adapt or be left behind, allowing for greater mobility. Of course you could alienate your users unless...
  3. Gradual merging. By slowly integrating features and behaviors of the wildly popular iOS into OS X, you're smoothing out the transition and making the pill easier to swallow.
Granted you're going to have your base of users who will reject any hint of iOS in OS X (funny considering how similar they are under the hood), but largely any change from the traditional monitor-mouse-keyboard model would be met with heated anger without any thoughts pro or against. These are largely the same people who insist the internet was better in the early 90s. A group of people you should largely ignore because you will never satisfy them.

The fact of the matter is the people that need something more capable than an iPad are smaller than the people who don't. I myself found that my iPad has largely replaced my personal laptop at home (which does make me wonder why I'm considering a MacBook Air instead of an iMac or Mac Mini). It couldn't replace my Desktop. My worry with this trend is how it will affect the growth of the power user. Having the full power of the PC available to me played a huge part in making me who I am. The incredibly low barrier of entry to create software is huge, and it's something I hope Apple and Microsoft don't lose sight of.
 
Espy

Espy

I'm intrigued. I'll be watching this with interest. I like Lion quite a bit although I'm wary of any major transitions in OS until I get to see if they are more practical.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
stienman said:
Apple is firmly in the "computer" ---> appliance camp, and if they keep traditional OS X around it'll largely be for developers producing apps for their appliances.
Click to expand...

Apple has repeatedly sworn this will never happen. There are too many power users. Your traditional Mac user will leave the platform out of necessity. Apple has a huge science and engineering following largely due to the freeBSD underpinnings. People who come from a GNU background come for the beautified *nix aspect of it. I think they'll keep both lines for a long time.
Added at: 15:12
Also from MacWorld: http://www.macworld.com/article/165460/2012/02/mountain_lion_what_you_need_to_know.html
 
Covar

Covar

Some people have speculated, and I think this would be a good idea, that with all the shifting of iOS features and behaviors to OS X, that gatekeeper would be a great feature to shift the other way.
 
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