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Analyst: Future Mac, iPhone on unified platform

Analyst at Jefferies & Company spells out his vision of Apple's future in a research note that touches on all of the marquee issues for Apple in 2012 and beyond.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
2 min read

An analyst at Jefferies & Company has offered his take on the prospect of an Apple future that merges operating environments and taps more into Apple's in-house chip technology.

"We believe Apple is looking to merge iOS (iPhones/iPads) with OS X (Macs) into a single platform for apps and cloud services starting in 2012-13," Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek wrote in an August 2 research note entitled "One to Rule Them All: iOS and OS X Roadmaps to Merge."

Highlights of Misek's research note:

  • OS merger: OS merger to start in 2012 or 2013 and be complete in 2016. Apple can use a 32-bit ARM chip design "to address the vast majority of the OS X ecosystem's needs in 2012-13 except for high-end professional devices." Then, when a 64-bit ARM chip arrives in 2016, Apple will have a single OS and hardware architecture.
  • 32-bit vs. 64-bit: Advantage of 64-bit is only with computationally-intensive programs like Adobe's Creative Suite. These types of programs are mainly used by professionals and prosumers on MacBook Pro notebooks and Mac Pro desktops.
  • Apple A6 processor: Apple is ready to start sampling the A6 quad-core processor and this chip will be capable of "PC-like strength" and be cross-platform, running both OS X and iOS.
  • iPad 3, iPhone 5: The iPad 3 will use the A6 and launch in the first quarter of 2012. The iPhone 5 to launch next summer with the A6. The iPhone 4S will launch this September with the A5 processor that currently powers the iPad 2.
  • MacBook Air with A6: MacBook Air laptop to launch with the A6 in second half of 2012 or 2013. MacBook Pro line and Mac desktops line will "remain on Intel 64-bit chips until 2016."
  • iCloud: The cloud will be the center of Apple's strategy, allowing users to keep their identity and content profiles in the cloud. "Users will log on to a device where the profile, content, and apps will be customized and optimized for the device."
  • HTML 5: HTML 5 is "hugely disruptive and effectively turns everything into an app." And with local storage, HTML 5 will allow users to interact with content while offline.

This report was first reported by Barron's.