Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Seriously starting to become a joke, where are the M1 Mac iOS, iPadOS apps.

LFC2020

LFC2020

macrumors P6
Original poster
Apr 4, 2020
16,874
38,040
The M1 macs have been out for a while now and iOS, iPadOS apps on the Mac App Store are still nowhere to be seen, these so called developers need a kick up the backside, if it continues this way, apple should make it mandatory if you have a iOS, iPadOS app it has to be compatible with the M1 Mac App Store. 🤦‍♂️
 
  • Like
  • Haha
Reactions: JaJaWa, rafark, radus and 7 others
09872738 said:
Yeah, right. Like its not the developer‘s decision what s/he wants to support. Apple is not the developer police, is it?
Click to expand...
I understand that, but apple has made it so easy for them to convert their apps for the M1 macs, I’m 100% sure that even if they had a free app on iOS and made it available on the Mac App Store for a small fee I can guarantee you millions of people would still purchase their apps.

Love my M1 Mac, amazing battery life, very quick machine, big selling point for me was that I’d be able to enjoy iOS, iPadOS apps on my mac, the way it’s going most of the developers don’t seem interested in making that happen.

Was looking forward to upgrading to the 16” model this year but the way things are going I most likely won’t be anymore.
 
leman said:
Oh, I wouldn’t presume to. It’s just you appear to be a user with rather unique priorities.

At any rate, as more and more AS Macs are sold, Ike expect more and more iOS apps to be compatible. The situation is likely to change in a year or so.
Click to expand...
Also have a iPad, prefer using my Mac most of the time instead the iPad because of the form factor.

Hope you’re right, but early signs don’t look promising. 🥺
 
Few thoughts here. Search Chromebook and Android. They have been trying for years. Just hasn’t really taken off. I mean it is useable. But nobody is heralding it as a success.

1. Without getting anymore revenue, a developer has a new platform and screen size to support. More work to maintain quality no payoff.

2. Many good apps require GPS, finger gestures, rotation and other iOS specific hardware features to function well. The experience is inferior to that on iOS device.

3. Like the Touch Bar, I see it as a gimmick. It may or may not stick around but it’s nothing more than an experimental feature.
 
  • Like
  • Angry
  • Sad
Reactions: rafark, ssgbryan, radus and 4 others
Running iOS or iPad OS applications on macOS shouldn't be a top priority. In fact, it shouldn't be any priority at all. It's a nice gimmick but that's pretty much it. There is literally not a single reason why one would want to run a castrated iOS/iPad OS version of a full-featured application or web service on a device such as a laptop or desktop. Considering the limitations inherent to the iOS platform apps over websites make sense but with a full-sized computer? Not so much.

I highly doubt it will ever take off, see Chromebook and Android. At worst it will stay a gimmicky "might work but only if the developer accidently forgets to disable it and littered with odd bugs here and there". At best it will quietly disappear after a while again because nobody but a fringe minority really gives a hoot.
 
  • Like
  • Angry
Reactions: Quackers, madeirabhoy, three and 7 others
It’s fair that Apple allows app devs to decide whether their apps are available or not. If an app dev has been working for years (probably not for those big bucks people assume) designing and maintaining an app built specifically for a phone or a tablet, with those devices specific hardware requirements and OS in mind, they might not want their app running on Macs because they probably need a lot of work to be considered acceptable to the dev. It’s their brand that’s ultimately at stake. Easy for anyone to just say do it. But when Apple’s app dev documentation has long been considered vague or not as inclusive as it could be, sometimes it’s hard to find answers to simple issues. I follow a lot of app devs on Twitter and see a lot of the frustration from them about wanting to bring their apps over, but it just not being that easy to do.
 
  • Like
  • Sad
Reactions: rafark, Nightfury326, jeremiah256 and 2 others
LFC2020 said:
The M1 macs have been out for a while now and iOS, iPadOS apps on the Mac App Store are still nowhere to be seen, these so called developers need a kick up the backside, if it continues this way, apple should make it mandatory if you have a iOS, iPadOS app it has to be compatible with the M1 Mac App Store. 🤦‍♂️
Click to expand...
Consider these:
  • I'm going to guess that M1 Macs probably make up ~0.01% of the total iPhone and iPad install base right now.
  • Most iOS/iPad apps have at least one iPhone/iPad only features such as haptic feedback, gyroscope, access to back-camera, built‑in GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou, LiDAR Scanner, Three‑axis gyro, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor.
  • Apps that absolutely needed to be on macOS already have Electron or native Mac apps.
This is probably why most developers haven't bothered optimizing/testing their mobile apps for MacOS. This will change in the future as more Apple Silicon Macs get sold of course.
 
  • Like
  • Sad
Reactions: three and LFC2020
i think the reason why we are not seeing much apps is that the developers are trying to find a way, how do they milk the users for more cash for those apps...
 
  • Haha
Reactions: alien3dx and LFC2020
The only way this would have "worked" would be if Apple hadn't given devs a way to prevent users from running their apps. But then we'd be overrun with a lot more apps not made for Macs than are.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Starfia, LFC2020 and gank41
GumaRodak said:
i think the reason why we are not seeing much apps is that the developers are trying to find a way, how do they milk the users for more cash for those apps...
Click to expand...

It’s ultimately a business decision. Updates require resources, time and money.

Once more AS Macs are launched this spring, the numbers might point to a more favorable return on investment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ssgbryan, martyjmclean, Fair Witness and 1 other person
I don't develop for Macs or iOS, but I can imagine a few reasons why most devs don't want to do that.

LFC2020 said:
apple has made it so easy for them to convert their apps for the M1 macs
Click to expand...
It may be easy to build an iOS/iPadOS app for macOS, but the result will always be an app built for a different form factor on a device where it doesn't belong. Touch-based interfaces and mouse+keyboard interfaces work differently and a 1:1 port from one of the mobile OSes will NOT feel like a Mac app. There's a lot of UX work to be done on a Mac port of a mobile app and it's just not very profitable:
iOS apps target all iPhone users.
Mac ports of iOS apps target only the tiny "people who are okay with running ports of iOS apps" subset of the tiny "Apple Silicon Mac owners" subset of all Mac owners.

LFC2020 said:
apple should make it mandatory if you have a iOS, iPadOS app it has to be compatible with the M1 Mac App Store
Click to expand...
Apple requires apps on their platform to conform to a certain standard, there are interface guidelines to follow. By making it mandatory to support macOS they would open the floodgates of terrible one-click 1:1 ports that would literally ruin the platform known for expensive "boutique" apps.
Ask Microsoft how it goes with UWP apps. And when you're at it, ask ChromeOS how's Android apps support.

mj_ said:
Running iOS or iPad OS applications on macOS shouldn't be a top priority. In fact, it shouldn't be any priority at all.
Click to expand...
This is only my opinion, but I have to say I 100% agree with this. iPhone and iPad apps optimized for touch are not welcome on my fairly expensive work tool with a 43" screen. It goes against my interest that Apple pours any dev time and money into this. I wish they didn't do that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jeremiah256, Stridr69, LFC2020 and 1 other person
LFC2020 said:
The M1 macs have been out for a while now and iOS, iPadOS apps on the Mac App Store are still nowhere to be seen, these so called developers need a kick up the backside, if it continues this way, apple should make it mandatory if you have a iOS, iPadOS app it has to be compatible with the M1 Mac App Store. 🤦‍♂️
Click to expand...

The last thing Apple should do is force developers to make iOS apps available on the Mac App Store, especially given the current climate in DC regarding big tech. A lot of iOS/iPad OS apps use features of the iPhone/iPad that aren't present in a Mac (GPS/aGPS, cellular triangulation, etc.) or are designed in a way that would make using those apps on a machine without a touchscreen very painful for the user. Since Mac hardware and Mac OS are based on a keyboard/mouse interaction paradigm for the UI rather than a touch interface as iOS and iPad OS, not all apps will translate well across platforms.
 
  • Like
  • Sad
Reactions: pilotpat, jdb8167 and LFC2020
GumaRodak said:
i think the reason why we are not seeing much apps is that the developers are trying to find a way, how do they milk the users for more cash for those apps...
Click to expand...
Sorry, but this is insulting. Most developers cannot even make a living from their apps. Look around in the stores. Apps are regularly downvoted for being too costly - at a price of 4 bucks. People do not even think about the cost of their morning latte, but complain about „expensive“ apps that actually are cheaper than that. Just crazy.

I do have an app in the iOS App Store. Its free. No ads. No tracking. Its almost comical how often I receive emails asking for features in a pretty aggressive tone. From people who paid exactly nil.
Of course, if you ask what they would shell out for the requested feature you barely get a response.

Let me tell you: the impression that „developers milk users“ is, in the general case, profoundly wrong
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Wow
  • Angry
Reactions: skaro, mgymnop, rafark and 16 others
your point of view makes sense and i agree with you with the peoples behaviour. I do have experience how i did describe. Our experiences are not negating each other. I dont want to do a flame war here. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: LFC2020 and 09872738
GumaRodak said:
your point of view makes sense and i agree with you with the peoples behaviour. I do have experience how i did describe. Our experiences are not negating each other. I dont want to do a flame war here. :)
Click to expand...
I agree. Just wanted to clarify my point. Plus I agree once more, some companies do at least try to exploit users.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: GumaRodak
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back