Apple has a plan for universal apps across iOS and macOS, report says
0Apple has a plan for universal apps across iOS and macOS, report says.
Citing people familiar with the matter, a Bloomberg report claims an internal Apple project seeks to make it possible for app developers to publish apps that work on both mobile iOS devices and Mac computers.
Currently, separate apps must be developed for iOS and macOS, and, with a smaller install base, the Mac App Store is not as robust as that of the iPhone. But the new project, reportedly code-named "Marzipan" internally, would allow for designing and developing apps that could be used with either a touchscreen or a mouse (or trackpad) and published to both platforms.
Depending on how Apple approaches this project, it could reduce workload on developers who want their software to be usable across the Apple ecosystem while bolstering the Mac App Store with a larger library of apps.
The report does not get into details about how exactly this would work. Critically, Macs run on a different architecture than iOS devices. That said, rumors that Macs will move away from Intel to ARM processors have been persistent for years, in contrast to Apple's previous claims that merging the iOS and Mac platforms is not something worth pursuing. (Apple has changed its mind many times before, though.)