On the Mac
At WWDC20, Apple announced macOS 11 & the transition to Apple Silicon, setting out an exciting next decade for Mac hardware & innovation!
The announcement of macOS Big Sur & the transition to Apple Silicon has made me the more excited for the Mac roadmap than I have been in over a decade. The speculation, hints, and fantasizing that has occurred in recent weeks have helped generate a feeling that the Mac, and Mac development, is on the cusp of being dramatically reinvigorated.
For years the vibe felt was that macOS was playing second fiddle to Apple’s iOS platform. Macs make up less than 10% of Apple’s revenue (and have since at least 2012), while the revenue generated by iOS devices alone regularly sail north of 60%. New & exciting innovations are introduced first (& sometimes exclusively) to iOS, and then only trickle their way onto macOS years later. Whether this came in the form of hardware (e.g., ProMotion, Retina displays, TrueTone, TouchID, enhance speakers, etc.), or software features (e.g. iMessage enhancements, Map features, ScreenTime, etc.), the iPad and iPhone have been the fertile ground for innovation. The Mac? Well, it got that oft-maligned TouchBar & keyboard that people hated so damn much that Apple eventually cried uncle and reverted to the scissor-switch (which, may I say, is A-mazing!).
Meanwhile, macOS stood to the side, a nearly 20-year platform that had matured and had settled down (bought a house in the ‘burbs, gotten a dog, maybe had a kid on the way). And perhaps that is how it should be; a robust and stable platform is absolutely nothing to sneer at. It was from that mature platform that developers could build all those hot & exciting apps that all iOS users went gaga for!
But then Big Sur comes along. Version 11. OS X is dead! Steve said that Mac OS X set Apple up for the next 20 years, and he predicted the future with chilling accuracy:
“The second major transition though has been even bigger, and that’s the transition from OS 9 to OS X that we just finished a few years ago... and even though these operating systems vary in name only by one, they are worlds apart in their technology... OS X is the most advanced operating system on the planet, and it has set Apple up for the next 20 years.”
- Steve Jobs, WWDC 2005
Watching the WWDC20 keynote felt like Apple was retooling how Macs & iOS will coexist together, from a dichotomy (Mac or iOS) to a fluid spectrum around which type of Apple Silicon device you want to build for your particular workflow. Your choice will rely more on preference and less on software or hardware limitations as they exist today. The harmonized design language that began in Big Sur & iOS 14 is one step in that direction; the multi-year transition to Apple Silicon is the next.
As Apple Silicon moves onto the Mac and rumours swirl about possible touch screen Macs, FaceID, rounded corners, & a refreshed hardware lineup coming across the next few years, it feels like the spotlight has once again shifted onto the Mac. The next few years position the Mac to take on the role of showcasing innovations that push the boundaries of what we’ve come to expect from Apple processors and design.
