The real reasons Apple won’t put macOS on the iPad
Apple has refused to put macOS on their iPads, but Apple users want to know, why not? Video director, Owen Grove, dives into answering this question by speaking to experts and trying to use the iPad Pro as his work device while mirroring macOS.
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00:00Mac OS on an iPad.
00:02This idea has been popping up on our Vergecast hotline
00:05in videos, comments, everywhere.
00:08People really wanna run the Mac operating system
00:10on the iPad because iPads just can't do everything
00:13that your MacBook can.
00:15And as the iPad keeps getting more hardware upgrades,
00:18the software really isn't keeping up.
00:21Leading up to this past WWDC,
00:23people were hoping iPad OS was going to get some updates
00:26that might even make it a little more like Mac OS finally.
00:29Instead, we got a calculator app.
00:32That's right, we're bringing calculator to iPad.
00:35Yay!
00:36I guess it isn't too surprising
00:37considering Apple's past response
00:39when this type of question was brought up.
00:41No!
00:43All of these questions are pretty much asking
00:45the same thing.
00:46Why won't Apple put Mac OS on the iPad?
00:50And to answer as best we could,
00:52I tried to make my iPad run Mac OS
00:55to see what the experience was like.
00:57I talked to somebody with a lot of experience
00:59developing apps for iPad,
01:00and I also talked to the Verge's editor-in-chief,
01:02Nilay Patel, to help answer why not.
01:06And here's a hint, money.
01:08But maybe not in the way you might think.
01:12The iPad is marketed for creative professionals,
01:15and I'm a pro.
01:16I do video work, but I wouldn't think
01:18to do any of that work on an iPad
01:20over my desktop or laptop,
01:22especially because every time I see somebody online
01:25saying stuff like, I did all my editing
01:27or whatever work on an iPad for a month,
01:30it's sort of presented like they are attempting
01:33a dangerous stunt or some impossible task.
01:36I hear a lot that it's good enough
01:38for small projects or social videos,
01:40or it works in a pinch,
01:42but to me, that just screams compromise and limitations.
01:46I used this iPad for a few weeks
01:48and ran into a huge amount of headaches
01:50and a laundry list of things I couldn't do
01:52on the iPad versus my Mac.
01:54I could go off, but here's a list, so I don't.
01:58But I also recognize the crazy amount of hardware
02:01they shoved into this.
02:02This is their highest-end 13-inch iPad Pro,
02:05and just look at the specs on this guy.
02:08I mean, they skipped an M3 iPad
02:10and went straight to the M4.
02:12Even their Crush commercial seems to hint
02:14at all the power they're cramming into this iPad
02:16and all the tools it might be able to replace,
02:19but it just feels like they didn't include
02:20the software to match.
02:22The hardware being so beefy makes the software stand out
02:25like this strange bottleneck.
02:27You've got all this power that iPadOS
02:29won't let you make the most of.
02:32Well, now I wanna see what all the buzz is about.
02:34What would macOS be like on this iPad?
02:37My plan was to run macOS on an iPad as a virtual machine.
02:41This wouldn't be installing macOS directly on the iPad.
02:44We'd instead be setting some of the iPad's resources aside
02:47to act as its own machine and then boot macOS into that.
02:51I was going to use the app UTM,
02:54but Apple removed hypervisor support
02:56in an update to iOS 16.4 and on.
02:59Hypervisor is what made virtualization possible,
03:02and I'm on iPadOS 17.
03:04So since we can't run a virtual machine on the iPad,
03:07I figured our next best bet would be
03:09to just screen mirror off a MacBook, put it on the iPad,
03:13and that way we can navigate macOS
03:15and full versions of apps with the Apple Pencil
03:17and see what that's like.
03:18And hey, to be fair, the experience might suck
03:22because macOS is not optimized for touch like the iPad is.
03:25It's really easy to mirror your screens with Sidecar,
03:28and I'm opting for a wired connection
03:30because I don't wanna have to worry about latency.
03:33Make sure both devices are on the same Wi-Fi,
03:35check that AirPlay's enabled for both,
03:38go to screen mirroring and add another display,
03:41which will be your iPad.
03:42So I'm not trying to extend my display,
03:44I'm going to mirror it.
03:45And just like that, macOS is kind of on your iPad.
03:48Now let's pretend this MacBook
03:50doesn't exist for a little bit,
03:52and I give you iPad Mac.
03:56I know macOS isn't optimized for touch,
03:58and when you see it on the iPad screen, it really shows.
04:02These Mac apps look like they'd be a challenge
04:04to navigate with clunky finger touches,
04:06even if Sidecar would let me, which it won't.
04:09I can use the Pencil and some touch gestures
04:11like zooming and rotation though,
04:13so it does know my fingers are there,
04:15but even using the Pencil can be a bit less precise
04:18than I need it to be when resizing windows.
04:20Some buttons and panels
04:22just have very tiny hit boxes to click.
04:24You can only use the mouse or trackpad
04:26of whatever device you're mirroring from,
04:28which makes sense.
04:30You can't use the trackpad of your iPad's magic keyboard,
04:33but you can use the key part of the keyboard,
04:36so kind of a arbitrary limitation.
04:39Universal control wasn't meant to work this way.
04:41But honestly, this feels pretty good to me
04:44despite not being able to use all the iPad's inputs
04:47the way I would like to.
04:48I really liked using the Apple Pencil Pro in macOS,
04:51and it was nice drawing with it in Adobe Animate
04:53and Photoshop with the full UI.
04:55And even though this iPad is insanely light and thin,
04:58it's a little back heavy,
05:00so I have to hold it steady when drawing
05:02with any sort of pressure,
05:03or it'll kind of rock back and forth.
05:05And that way, I can't keep a hand free
05:08for keyboard shortcuts.
05:09I actually decided that I would edit
05:11this portion of the video in full Premiere Pro
05:13on the iPad Pro connected through Sidecar.
05:15So let's ask Editor Owen how it's going.
05:18What do you think, me?
05:21Thanks, me.
05:24Editing feels all right.
05:25I mean, it's just normal Premiere Pro,
05:26but with an Apple Pencil.
05:28But even this feels like a faster workflow
05:31than I've experienced on some iPad NLEs.
05:33And sure, the 13-inch screen has a more cramped workspace,
05:38but I appreciate being able to use Lumetri and my plugins
05:41and having more control over my workspace.
05:44I'm trying to just use the Pencil Pro and keyboard,
05:46but I keep finding myself wanting to reach for the mouse
05:49for more precision with things like adjusting clip lengths
05:52and audio transitions.
05:54But if I just used a separate mouse and keyboard,
05:57then I'd be just editing on a tiny screen
06:00and kind of missing the point
06:01of using the iPad part of this.
06:04I mean, heck, this isn't even using the M4 chip.
06:06This is kind of just turning the iPad into a Wacom tablet.
06:10So it feels okay.
06:12The Pencil's way more precise than I thought it would be.
06:14My fingers would be less so,
06:16but I'm not quite sold on video editing
06:18being something that benefits
06:20from being a touch-first experience.
06:22It's nice to have the option though
06:23for things like masking, rotoscoping, or using the Pen tool.
06:28I liked having some touch and Pencil support
06:29when using full versions of apps,
06:31and of course, managing big project files
06:34without pulling my hair out.
06:35And I feel a little weird saying
06:37that I think I like it better
06:39than what the iPad's version of this experience is.
06:42So this specific setup is not a solution,
06:45but it does feel like there's a little something there.
06:48Anyway, enough of this, back to me.
06:52Mirroring a screen is not at all the same
06:54as actually running macOS on an iPad.
06:56And I just don't know how complicated that might be.
07:00For that, I figured I should talk to somebody
07:01who speaks Apple's language,
07:04specifically Swift, Apple's programming language.
07:07I pretty much use my iPad for everything I can
07:11except for literally programming.
07:13And that is how I've divided it.
07:15This is Riley Testit.
07:16He's a developer of AltStore.io, which is a sideloading app,
07:19and the Delta Emulator, which just came to the App Store.
07:21If you ever played any sort of Nintendo game
07:24on your iPad or your iPhone, it's probably because of him.
07:27I were just in Europe for two months,
07:28and so trying to launch AltStore,
07:30and I had to bring my iMac with me, and I brought my iPad.
07:33I need a way to program not on my iMac.
07:38And so I had to literally buy a MacBook Air M2
07:40two weeks before the M3 one came out,
07:43because I was just like, there's no way I can get my work done.
07:46And that to me was a really frustrating,
07:47like my iPad is an M1 chip, my iMac is an M1 chip,
07:51and I needed to buy a third computer.
07:54I asked Riley about the challenges
07:56of porting the full versions of Mac applications to the iPad.
07:59If we can't have macOS,
08:01can we just bring full Mac versions of the apps
08:04to the iPads?
08:06It's harder to go from macOS to iPadOS
08:09just because of the technology stack,
08:11because everything on Mac is written
08:13in a certain framework app kit
08:14that doesn't exist at all on the iPad.
08:16So to bring it over to the iPad,
08:19you're basically looking at a complete rewrite
08:21of your entire UI, which is the hardest part to develop,
08:24honestly, or in my opinion.
08:26The other side, it's easy to go from iPad to Mac now
08:28with Catalyst.
08:29Mac Catalyst is an option in Xcode for iOS projects
08:33that developers can enable
08:34to make Mac versions of their iPad or iPhone app.
08:38And so I think that's what Apple is trying to push
08:40going forward.
08:40If you're making a new app, develop it for iPad first,
08:44but yeah, I don't, people aren't really doing that,
08:47so we're stuck in a situation where, yeah,
08:48the Mac app's just completely different worlds
08:50of the other platforms.
08:52Now, what about the design of the iPad
08:55would need to change to even be able to run macOS?
08:59I don't think much.
09:01If it were to happen, I really see something
09:03it would be a macOS app that you could just boot into,
09:07and then you would just be running macOS
09:10in its own little container environment.
09:12And I think that's basically a policy decision at this point
09:15based on the technology is there,
09:17there's a virtualization framework on the Mac
09:20that's even supported by the M1 chips
09:21that could in theory do this simply.
09:25So it wouldn't be as complicated
09:27as a whole big, huge overhaul to make it-
09:30Exactly.
09:31That virtualization framework,
09:33Riley mentioned, is still there.
09:35Apple would just have to do something with it.
09:38I thought that maybe the hardware was the problem,
09:41but this iPad Pro's specs are comparable,
09:44if not better than the M2 MacBook Air,
09:47which has an eight-core processor
09:49next to this iPad's 10-core CPU.
09:51So if it's not an impossible hardware problem
09:54holding this whole dream back, what am I missing?
09:57Oh yeah, money.
09:59This is Apple making a choice.
10:02At a post-WWDC event,
10:03John Gruber asked Greg Jaswiak and Craig Federighi
10:06about the people who want macOS for their iPad
10:09because they can't do their professional work on them.
10:11And this was their response.
10:13They're very different products.
10:15They're different design points,
10:16and the Mac is the Mac.
10:17And I don't know.
10:19I don't know why people have wanted,
10:20for the time that these have existed,
10:23to want to merge them together.
10:24That's not our desire.
10:26It's still a big fat no.
10:28I do not want them to become the same device.
10:30And we want to keep making iPad the best iPad it can be.
10:33We are not trying to create a Windows 8 PC or whatever.
10:38So their answer to, why not,
10:42is pretty much, we don't want to.
10:45This felt pretty vague.
10:47Keeping the iPad separate is most likely more profitable,
10:50and my initial hunch here was,
10:52if Apple made a MacBook with a touchscreen
10:54or an iPad that could fully replace a Mac,
10:57they wouldn't sell as many devices
10:59if people didn't need to buy both.
11:01But I wanted to ask somebody who might know.
11:03I sat down with our very own Nilay Patel,
11:05who knows a ton about Apple.
11:07He's analyzed Apple on VergeCast for years
11:09and can shed some light on Apple's business decisions.
11:12Apple's always been pretty fine with cannibalizing itself.
11:16Historically, its executives, including Steve Jobs,
11:19have said things like,
11:20if anyone is gonna cannibalize their business,
11:22it had better be us.
11:23So they're really good at cannibalizing their own businesses
11:26and moving their customers
11:27from one product line to another.
11:29They initially viewed the iPad as the future of computing.
11:32They said it really loudly.
11:33This is the future of computing, and Macs will fade away.
11:36And there was a moment where it seemed
11:38like the Mac was fading away,
11:40but the Mac was resilient
11:41because I think people wanted to do more things
11:43with computers than iPads let them do.
11:46And so they just kept buying Macs.
11:47Famously, to write an iPhone app, you have to have a Mac.
11:51You cannot write an iPad app on an iPad,
11:53which is really interesting.
11:54So you need a Mac for all this stuff,
11:56and I think that's gonna stay very powerful.
11:58The idea that the iPad would cannibalize that,
12:01that is sort of up to Apple to allow,
12:04but I don't think it is a negative.
12:06I think it could very easily be a positive
12:07because it might actually drive people to buy an iPad
12:10that currently are not thinking of buying an iPad.
12:13I wasn't expecting that answer, and he's got a point.
12:18Apple has released products
12:19that made their older products obsolete,
12:22and it was seen as a positive.
12:24The iPod Nano stole sales from the iPod Mini.
12:27iPods were replaced with iPhones.
12:30Well, if it isn't that, what's the real reason?
12:34Apple has a lot of incentives
12:35to protect how applications work on the iPad and the iPhone.
12:39The Mac is an open platform.
12:42Anyone can write a Mac application.
12:44They can distribute it to you any way they like.
12:46They can distribute apps in the web browser,
12:49and Apple doesn't get any of that money.
12:51So they sell you a Mac, you have a Mac forever,
12:54and maybe you never pay Apple another cent
12:56after you buy your Mac.
12:58The iPhone, in particular, is very different.
13:01Apple owns that application model completely, end-to-end.
13:04Everything that happens on the iPhone is in Apple's control.
13:06So Neal is talking about how the App Store
13:09is the main way to get applications on your iPad.
13:12Apple gets 15 to 30% of app purchases,
13:15in-app purchases of digital content, and subscriptions.
13:18On Mac, you can get applications directly from developers
13:21without Apple getting a cut of that money.
13:24That's the business that's growing for them.
13:25They make an increasing amount of money
13:27from people who already have iPhones
13:28who are spending more money on their phones,
13:30and a decreasing amount of money
13:32from people buying new phones.
13:33And those numbers haven't crossed yet, but that is the mix.
13:36The iPad sits right in the middle of those things,
13:39because it looks like a computer, it looks like a MacBook,
13:42but the application model is still the iPhone's model,
13:44where everything is in Apple's control.
13:46This makes a ton of sense.
13:49Apple doesn't want to give up that sweet App Store money.
13:52If iPad literally had macOS,
13:54you wouldn't need to buy all those light versions of apps.
13:57Also, selling hardware is more of a one-time purchase.
14:01The App Store and subscriptions
14:03are potentially forever money.
14:06Disrupting the money iPads make from that
14:08would be the bigger blow in the long term.
14:11Apple's answer to macOS for iPads has consistently been no.
14:15So we asked, why not?
14:17It's not that iPadOS is bad.
14:19It just simplified what you can do on a MacBook
14:21and maybe took that too far
14:22if it still wants to be considered for professional use.
14:25I don't think iPadOS should get thrown out.
14:28There are people who are really happy with it.
14:30But when I used it for any sort of complex task,
14:32it had me feeling like,
14:33man, I wish I was using a real computer,
14:36even though it is one.
14:38It's certainly shaped like one
14:39and all the attachments that make it worth using.
14:42So why can't we have macOS on the iPad?
14:45After talking with Riley,
14:47I didn't feel like it was hardware holding it back.
14:50After talking to Nilay,
14:51it felt like it was mainly the App Store.
14:53It doesn't feel like Apple
14:55is going to change its mind on this anytime soon.
14:57Instead, there might be little updates
14:59to the iPad software and hardware
15:01that push it a little closer to macOS.
15:05One day, your iPad might even feel
15:07like you're using a real laptop.
15:09And on that day, you can ask yourself,
15:12oh, wait, why didn't I just buy a laptop?
15:15The whole reason we made this video
15:16was because we kept getting a lot of the same question.
15:18So if you have any burning questions
15:20keeping you up at night that are about tech,
15:23let us know in the comments
15:24and we'll do our best to answer.