Apple's project 'Marzipan' will let iOS apps run on the Mac in 2018 - report

As a way to bolster software offerings on Mac, Apple is reportedly planning to blur the lines between its macOS and iOS platforms, allowing iPhone and iPad apps from the hugely successful iOS App Store to run on a Mac.

The massive change will come as early as next year, according to Bloomberg, which cited continued struggles to get software makers to embrace the Mac App Store. With the expected upcoming changes, developers will be able to create a single application that can work with either a touchscreen, a mouse, or a trackpad.

The hope, according to author Mark Gurman, is that applications on the Mac will be updated more frequently and be of higher quality than their current state. The report cited the official Twitter app, which is regularly updated for iPhone and iPad, but less frequently so for Mac.

The blurring of lines between macOS and iOS will reportedly occur with next year's major software updates. If Apple sticks to its usual release pattern, then iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 would be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, before launching to the public in September.

According to Gurman, the project is code-named "Marzipan."

The report noted that Apple's Mac hardware could one day run custom A-series chips, much like the iPhone and iPad. But it would appear that plans to allow iOS apps on the Mac will work with existing Mac hardware, powered by Intel processors.

The Mac App Store debuted in early 2011 on OS X Snow Leopard, offering both free and paid applications.

Like the iOS App Store, Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all apps sold on the Mac App Store. But unlike on iOS, Apple still allows users to install non-App Store content, leaving many developers sticking to selling to customers directly.

71 Comments

danv2 29 comments · 14 Years

About 7 years ago

I have to be honest, I kind of want to vomit now. This only underscores them backtracking on years, and years, and years, of research and design. The touch screen is not the desktop and vice versa. This is the Red Wedding of macOS essentially to me. Making these super universal apps will destroy ecosystems, and make people incredibly frustrated. It did not work for Microsoft, and it did not work for Google, why in the hell is Apple doing this? Who did they hire? I'm betting some Google or Redmond recruit has gotten his claws in deep enough to poison the well and destroy a good thing. I can be up front in saying Jobs is rolling around in his grave at the moment, and yeah, I take that and run with it because its the truth. And yeah, Jobs is dead, but this is ripping up the playbook and crapping on the idea of a tablet OS and a desktop OS. They are separate, they are different. Programmers and customers alike do not like to conflate them. Mark my words though: 2018 Apple will require you to build a Mac OS app as well, and then state you can't put it on the App Store unless you have a version of both. The end result: anarchy and hell.

wwchris 60 comments · 14 Years

About 7 years ago

Mouse support would actually allow the iPad to become a "real" computer. Que the "what's a computer" jokes. :-)

danv2 29 comments · 14 Years

About 7 years ago

wwchris said:

Mouse support would actually allow the iPad to become a "real" computer. Que the "what's a computer" jokes. :-)

This is my point entirely as well. If you start adding in the mouse to iPad apps you essentially just have a thin laptop. The entire point of the iPad was to avoid a mouse. The entire point of a desktop OS is to use a mouse. Splicing the two together holds no water, and has no dignity in the investment made during development. This isn't thinking different, this is thinking like the rest of the crowd and becoming a sheep. I'm none to happy about it either, but hey, I guess this is where we go. We give up on rock solid ideas that won entire platform wars to be just like the rest of the engineers losing ground.

StrangeDays 12980 comments · 8 Years

About 7 years ago

danv2 said:

I have to be honest, I kind of want to vomit now. This only underscores them backtracking on years, and years, and years, of research and design. The touch screen is not the desktop and vice versa. This is the Red Wedding of macOS essentially to me. Making these super universal apps will destroy ecosystems, and make people incredibly frustrated. It did not work for Microsoft, and it did not work for Google, why in the hell is Apple doing this? Who did they hire? I'm betting some Google or Redmond recruit has gotten his claws in deep enough to poison the well and destroy a good thing. I can be up front in saying Jobs is rolling around in his grave at the moment, and yeah, I take that and run with it because its the truth. And yeah, Jobs is dead, but this is ripping up the playbook and crapping on the idea of a tablet OS and a desktop OS. They are separate, they are different. Programmers and customers alike do not like to conflate them. Mark my words though: 2018 Apple will require you to build a Mac OS app as well, and then state you can't put it on the App Store unless you have a version of both. The end result: anarchy and hell.

It’s a rumor, dude.

And no, I think your 2018 prediction is just panicked nonsense. They’re not going to force iOS devs to produce macOS versions anymore than they force iOS devs to make iPad or tvOS versions today.