This isn’t a new thought, but I really feel like this needs to be discussed. Going from using my iPad to using my Mac makes me very impatient. Even in the best of circumstances, there are still countless apps that take forever to load. Opening, saving, and closing applications using Mac OS X 10.6 takes forever and a half. Yes, SSDs improve the launch speed. Yes, decking out your computer with an i7 and 16 GB of RAM will make things faster. If you throw enough firepower at about any app available, it’ll run smoothly. Maybe with the exception of Photoshop (Hey-oh!). That said, a $500 iPad will beat out a $1000 iMac in the perception of speed and responsiveness every time for me.
Obviously, iOS and the apps it runs are less chunky. That doesn’t make the platforms fundamentally different, though. It just means that iOS is awesome, and OS X is just okay in comparison. It’s pretty safe to say that Apple sees iOS as the best of the best. Lion is moving in the direction of iOS, but I imagine it’s simply a stopgap. If Apple could press a button to convert all OS X users to iOS, I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t hesitate to push it.
The proof is in the pudding here. Given the choice between using my iPad or using my MacBook Pro, the iPad wins out every time with the exception of typing. All I’m saying is that we should be prepared for an all-iOS future. Don’t get left behind in the last generation of desktop operating systems. Are you listening, stubborn developers? I certainly hope so.
