Cupertino-based technology giant Apple rarely stays out of the news for too long. Recently, it was reported that the company is focussing on its services business and will be launching a subscription-based news service and a Netflix-like video-streaming platform.
And now, according to a new report that has surfaced online, Apple has plans of combining the apps made for iPhone, iPad and macOS by 2021. The report, which surfaced on Bloomberg, claims that Apple will enable developers to create a single app – single binary – which will work across all its platforms. To recall, the technology giant had revealed about this work at its last year’s developer conference, WWDC 2018. This program by the company has been codenamed Marzipan.
Apple has also started bringing the iOS versions of various apps like Stocks, News and Voice Memo to its macOS 10.14 Mojave platform.
Considering that a combined universal app is a very big step, Apple will be carrying this out in phases, according to the report. It has also been said that developers will also be allowed to port their iPad apps to Mac later this year using a new SDK. The report further says that this shall also be extended to iPhone apps in 2020 so that they can be brought to macOS too. Apple is expected to unveil the SDK at this year’s WWDC.
We should mention that Apple’s plan sounds very similar to what software giant Microsoft did with its Universal Windows Platform. The company had worked to make a single universal application for its Windows smartphones, tablets and PCs. However, it gave up on its Windows Phone in 2017 as it had undercut the idea of universal Windows apps. But there is also a difference in Microsoft‘s and Apple’s approach. The software giant worked on the idea while keeping the Windows operating system at the heart of its universal apps. However, Apple is keeping iOS and macOS separate.
Although Microsoft’s universal apps still exist, the company has been pushing developers to bring its desktop apps to Microsoft Store and it won’t be using a single app on all its devices like Xbox One, HoloLens, PCs, and tablets.
Coming back to Apple, it is speculated to hold its WWDC 2019 from June 3rd to 7th.
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