The year of the iOS-Mac OS merge: 2016

[Exotic-Car Man]

I recently realized that the "X" in "OS X" represents the Roman numeral for 10, which is probably pretty obvious for most of you. But this got me thinking. That means that in four years, assuming Apple maintains the usual annual iOS release schedule, iOS will reach its tenth version in four years. Furthermore, Apple is most likely to call it iOS X.

Additionally, (Mac) OS X has traditionally kept a biannual release schedule, except for this year. If they continue the biannual release schedule, Mac OS 10.9 will release in 2014. Apple will be able to milk that out for two years, which would give Mac OS 11 (or XI) the release year of 2016, the same year as the release of iOS X.

However, I estimate that Mac OS XI will never exist, as it will be replaced by iOS X. This also explains why Apple dropped the "Mac" from "Mac OS X", so there would be an easier name transition from OS X to iOS X.

Of course, if Apple does release Mac OS 10.9 next year (2013), then my prediction is almost certainly incorrect, but please let me know what you think of this!

 

[mrsir2009]

Well they are going to have to do something when OSX reaches 11...

 

[Macman45]

Messing with the names doesn't make much difference, fact is we are already a long way down the road to IOS integration. From an economic and sales point of view this makes sense for Apple. " I need an iPhone and iPad because they both work seamlessly with my Mac" is already a common statement. My buddy next door is about to buy his first iMac. His mobile contract is also up, and he now sees the iPhone as a logical choice for his next upgrade.

Apple will sell more IOS devices by continuing down the integration path...As to whether or not this is a good thing? well...That's for a different thread, but personally I like it. Photostream is still buggy, but hopefully ML will sort out some of the issues posted elsewhere on these boards.