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Could a closed Mac be in Apple's future?

by Erica Sadun May 17th 2010 at 1:30PM

By all accounts, and despite the groans of inconvenienced developers, iPhone OS has been a smashing success. In the second quarter of 2010, Apple sold roughly 20 million iPhone and iPods, compared to about 3 million Macs. The iPad alone has already sold its millionth unit. That means there are a lot of iPhone OS installations out there on Apple-branded equipment.

Under the hood, iPhone OS is virtually the same as the OS X that runs on Mac desktops. Steve Jobs announced this back in 2007, and it has been confirmed by any number of jailbreaks that allow third parties to explore the iPhone OS from the command line. It may be closed but iPhone OS is still basically OS X.

What differentiates iPhone OS from Mac OS has been the openness of the platform. Developers must go through Apple's review process to deploy software to the vast audience of iPhone OS device owners. Apple sets the rules, ensures the quality, polices the system. It's a new way of computing, closer to the TiVo or Wii experience than, say, the Windows or Linux experience.

Could it be the future of a new Macintosh line?

It's all about the numbers. With successes like this, Apple would be foolish not to even consider an "appliance" computer system running a closed version of OS X. I'm not suggesting that Apple would drop traditional OS X systems. After all, people still need development computers and production-quality computers. But consider how many people currently purchase iMacs and Mac Books, who generally do not need much in the way of advanced features. How many of them might benefit from a desktop system that's more iPad-like than iMac-like?

A closed desktop Mac would have to offer a lot more computing flexibility than the iPad offers. It would have to support mouse and keyboard interaction, better multitasking, and the ability to do business-quality work like accounting, document preparation, image editing, and so forth. And yet, you could imagine Apple preparing an OS and software that addresses these needs using a richer version of the iPhone OS frameworks, stepping outside of the current OS X evolutionary path.

If there's any point to this little post, it's this. Apple has entered into its most successful period by providing devices that work with the tasks that people want to experience on the go, whether it's making calls, checking location-based resources or handling e-mail and surfing the web. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple took that same highly-focused, user experience-centered design and migrated it back to the desktop.

What do you think? Could a closed OS X desktop be part of Apple's future? Let us know in the comments.

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By all accounts, and despite the groans of inconvenienced developers, iPhone OS has been a smashing success. In the second quarter of 2010,...
 

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117 Comments

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James

They already did... it was called At Ease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Ease

June 01 2010 at 2:31 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

you idiots are SUGGESTING that they CLOSE OUT access? HORRIBLE idea! Besides, in 5 years the consumers will use a device like the iPad for consuming media and their hub for personal computing. Developers, on the other hand, will likely stick with the current breed of machines.

May 27 2010 at 9:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
n00neimp0rtant

"Apple would be foolish not to even consider an 'appliance' computer system running a closed version of OS X."

This is what the iPad SHOULD have been.

May 23 2010 at 8:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rembert

Maybe a closed version of the macbook / iMac is a good idea for certain users as long as we have the choice of having an open version. I made the switch from Windows, via Ubuntu to OS-X, demanding it to be open.

The introduction of a closed version should not have any influence on the price of an open version - although Apple might feel attracted to the idea of trying to get as many people to the closed version as possible. I'd think creating a MacBook LT (not Air) or something might be an idea, being a closed one, priced similar as the iPad.

BTW, how about an open version of the iPad? (no jailbreaking)

May 21 2010 at 10:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Whosthatrandom

I don't see the issue - we'll just jailbreak the closed version to get to the open version, surely?

May 20 2010 at 7:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
dcunited08

First off, bear in mind I am NOT a Mac user. My experience has primarily been on Windows and Linux. The only Apple products I own are an iPod Touch and a iPod Classic from before they were classics.

I think an apps store for Macs would be a great asset. Linux distributions are build around software repositories and that allows for a basic set of apps and libraries that can be leveraged throughout the OS. Instead of having separate installs and updates, you wish to install one app and the required dependencies are calculated and automatically installed. This allows for system-wide updates as well. In Linux this in no way makes it more of a closed system, it makes it more open by allowing the user to add other install points that use the same format.

Will SJ allow that? I would think that eventually it will happen.

May 18 2010 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
sita

The next logical step would be to bring the iPhone OS model to Apple TV/FrontRow. Plex is nice and all, but quality wise it doesn't hold a stick to Apple's stuff.

May 18 2010 at 5:18 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ovenmitt

"That means there are a lot of iPhone OS installations out there on Apple-branded equipment."

Are there any iPhone installations on non-apple branded hardware?

May 18 2010 at 3:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Great! I think they should create a closed iWeb as well, without nudity, satire etc, cheap paid content and tons of iAds. Of course access to the real web should be blocked on all devices, probably beginning with the mobile ones, because "You know, there’s a porn store" on the web. "You can download nothing but porn. You can download porn, your kids can download porn. That’s a place we don’t want to go"

May 18 2010 at 3:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
kim.aldis

OS X is great but if they closed it, I'd drop it in a heartbeat. Wouldn't even think about it.

May 18 2010 at 2:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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