Comments on: OS X and iOS to Begin Merging Next Year, According to Analyst

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:15:27 +0000

OS X and iOS have already been merging and both are based on the same Darwin core.

Whether Apple will move from an Intel/ARM mix to strictly ARM processors is the bigger issue. Its unlikely Apple would move entirely to ARM for several reasons:
* Apple just invested heavily in Intel’s powerful Thunderbolt technology
* Apple is already in serious litigation with its ARM cpu supplier Samsung.
* Intel cpu’s can be developed to be as energy-efficient as ARM processors, particularly given Intel already makes the energy-efficient Atom processors.
* ARM processors technology simply can’t be made as powerful a processor as Intel cpu’s.

My prediction is Apple moves entirely to Intel cpu’s given iOS apps already run on Apple’s Intel hardware using the iOS simulator in X Code, Apple invested heavily in Intel’s Thunderbolt, and Intel cpu’s are significantly more powerful than ARM.

By: Irene Kisala

Irene Kisala — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:00:11 +0000

Ah, yes, Barron’s, that bastion of Mac news and rumours.

Call me when it actually happens.

By: iOS ir OS X sujungimas neišvengiamas? | Mobinews.lt - Telekomunikacijų naujienos, straipsniai, apžvalgos.

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:10:20 +0000

[...] naujos „OS X Lion“ operacinės sistemos išleidimo internete vėl pradėjo sklisti gandai, neva „Apple“ ruošiasi sujungti mobiliesiems įrenginiams specialiai sukurtą „iOS“ [...]

By: Asad Quraishi

Asad Quraishi — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:22:58 +0000

@Alberto re. ‘Mac is dying’…have you looked at year over year unit sales growth for the iMac/MacBook/Pro line lately?

The technology is several years from convergence. There are many professionals – including designers at Apple, that use workstations. If you look at what Steve said about the PC, he never said it would go away.

What’s much more likely is that the capabilities of iOS devices will approach the 80/20 boundary. That is – they will provide 80% of the functionality people need from a PC. At this point, only developers, designers, scientists, professionals will be buying Macs/PCs

By: Alberto

Alberto — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:03:45 +0000

Mac is dying…

By: Simon Othen

Simon Othen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 03:52:03 +0000

why should we have to jailbreak why cant apple provide a pro interface for those that want it

By: Jesse Sykes

Jesse Sykes — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:27:50 +0000

I think we may have to wait for iOSXI.

By: Dorje Sylas

Dorje Sylas — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:24:22 +0000

It’s not smart to force customers to hack around lockouts to basic functions. Especially when Apple can keep changing the systems to remove those “Jailbreaks”. It’s unstable and not something I’d want to have to deal with as a even a small business IT.

Considering Apple’s piss-poor management systems for iOS, I’m not sure I’d be supporting Apple computers at my work (a grade school) if that became the case. Even hiding the Library folder will make it harder to do support work. There many times I’ve had to go into Application Support and replace/restore critical items for 3rd party programs.

Locking IT out of those tools is bad, bad, bad, bad.

By: Name (required)

Name (required) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:21:13 +0000

No.

No no no no no!

By: G Johnson

G Johnson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:08:11 +0000

First they came for the mainframes,
and I didn’t speak out because I had moved on from mainframes.

Then they came for the minis,
and I didn’t speak out because I was way past minis.

Then they came for the workstations,
and I didn’t speak out because I had eBayed my desktop,

Then they came for my laptop,
and I had an appliance, but no computer.

With apologies to Martin Niemöller.

By: Parakeet

Parakeet — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:00:15 +0000

This is what OS X Lion is, a transitionary OS. The next OS will be even more transitionary, until the merge of the two. There isn’t much reason to keep them separate if they become equally capable.

By: Parakeet

Parakeet — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:59:21 +0000

You can jailbreak the iPhone or iPad and access the unix command line on those devices, this will always be a possibility for those who need it.

By: Dmitry Dulepov

Dmitry Dulepov — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:39:37 +0000

Architecture is very similar but not the same. For example, key frameworks are different. Also iOS does not allow new frameworks. This last bit, of course, may change but I do not think framework differences between iOS and OS X will change. It would invalidate all apps for one of two platforms, thus, not going to happen.

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:34:59 +0000

Since when do investment analysts get to speculate about where Apple is going with there technology? All they can do is draw trends lines past what has already occured leading to this dumb idea. The Mac isn’t a hand held device – I’m looking at a 27″ iMac right now and much of what works on my iPad doesn’t even make sense on my big screen. These guys need to rewatch the WWDC ’11 Keynote and pay attention this time – especially to the slide about the desktop getting demoted to just another device (psst. not transformed into a handheld!)

By: Dimitri

Dimitri — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:10:55 +0000

I’d hope that a merger of iOS and OSX wouldn’t strip the current functionality. Some people use their Mac for work like I do. I need the UNIX command line and all the UNIX utilities. If these were to go I’d have to get some whitebox PC and run Linux. That’d be a real shame.