Malcolm Owen
The splintering of the iPad-specific "iPadOS" from the iPhone's "iOS" is due to it being a "truly distinct experience" separate from the company's other platforms, according to Apple's Craig Federighi in a post-WWDC keynote interview.
Among the announcements relating to its operating systems, Apple revealed it was making a major change to iOS that would refine its purpose. Rather than continuing to combine iPhone and iPad under one operating system, Apple launched iPadOS as its own version just for the tablet line, offering more features than iOS that take advantage of the bigger screen size.
"It's become a truly distinct experience," said Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi in comments made to CNET on Monday. "It's not an iPhone experience. It's not a Mac experience. The name is a recognition of that."
The shift in attitude in using iPads for work instead of notebooks has opened up possibilities for people to accomplish tasks. While not directly calling iPadOS and iPads a replacement for the traditional notebook, Federighi suggested "we've expanded the domain where people can say the iPad is the best solution" with the launch of the new operating system.
When asked about his computing needs, Federighi advised he used both iPad and Mac for his work, as he manages teams that produces software for both platforms. On a personal level, Federighi admits he's spending more time with an iPad.
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33 Comments
So …
Will the number of pundits who swear that Apple is merging their operating systems increase or decrease?
As demonstrated during the keynote, the iPad indeed is capable of some tricks and functionality that is not able to be done on the iPhone, so I get the need for a distinct iPadOS. This also hints at future developements that may further evolve the iPad away from the iPhone. Ultimately, for most users, the iPad will replace the Mac, but I don't foresee a Mac-less future -- I think the Mac will carry on as a "truck" for users who need the extra power for a long time to come, but the reality is that most users don't and shouldn't be saddled with having to buy an expensive Mac or Windows machine when mobile has already shown that it can handle the day-to-day for most people.
Or in other words, the iPad is being positioned to replace laptops.
I see that iPadOS (bit of a mouthful) will have a download manager. I wonder if it will also get support for .zip and .torrent files?