“Apple will make apps for iPhone, iPad and Mac from 2021 onwards”

Apple reportedly wants to make it easier for app developers to create apps that work on both the iPhone and iPad and the Mac. Beginning in 2021, the developers could submit a single app for the Mac and iOS stores.

That’s what Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says, based on insiders. Gurman often publishes based on internal Apple information. According to the article, the plan is called Marzipan and the goal is to make it easier for developers by 2021 to develop one app that works on the three devices. Each new app is an additional potential cash flow for the company, as it gets a percentage of many app-related purchases and subscriptions.

From June it should be possible for developers to run apps for the iPad on a Mac with an SDK. Developers still have to submit the apps separately to the iOS and Mac software stores, but they don’t have to develop the underlying software twice. In 2020 it should also be possible for iPhone apps to convert them to Mac apps. Bloomberg does report that Apple engineers are having trouble converting the iPhone apps because the phone screens are so much smaller.

According to the plans, by 2021 it will be possible to make apps fully cross-platform, so that software can be published as a telephone, tablet and computer app. Then the developers do not have to deliver the apps to the app store per platform, and the app stores are effectively combined, Bloomberg writes. The media company does say that the plans are not fixed and can therefore still be changed.

These plans run concurrently with the hardware plans that the American company has according to Bloomberg. At the moment, the mobile devices have proprietary socs, while the company uses Intel processors for Macs. By 2020, some Mac computers could already have Apple processors.

Apple is following Microsoft and Google with its plans. Microsoft previously came up with uwp and its various platforms and Android apps can now be used on Chromebooks.