Apple: iOS and Mac OS X to Remain Separate

Cupertino exec calls the concept a "waste of energy."

While there's plenty of similarities between Apple's operating systems--OS X and iOS--the company isn't planning to merge the two. MacWorld recently published an interview with Cupertino executives, discussing thirty years of the Macintosh personal computer and why OS X will stay in the realm of the keyboard and mouse.

"The reason OS X has a different interface than iOS isn't because one came after the other or because this one's old and this one's new," said Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi. "Instead, it's because using a mouse and keyboard just isn't the same as tapping with your finger."
Of course, Apple has consistently made iOS and OS X more compatible. The release of the multi-touch Mac trackpad, for example, draws easy comparisons to iOS touch controls. Still, Apple's vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, says the company doesn't "waste time" thinking about merging the two operating systems together.
Microsoft has taken a different approach with its hardware, pushing a unified Windows 8 interface to both desktops and mobile. According to the interview, Schiller and Federighi said attaching a touchscreen to a PC, or a keyboard to a tablet, is just "barking up the wrong tree."