Apple, A Step Closer to Mac-iOS Unification

As investors take a short break from venerating Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares, the company may have just signaled more progress to unifying its desktop and mobile operating systems. Beta versions of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion are in developers hands, and with it, your Mac will soon be fluent in iOS. When Lion was first announced in early 2011, Apple let it known that they had learned a lot from iOS users. Mac OS 10.8 builds significantly upon what 10.7 started, which despite advancements, is far from providing the Apple standard for smoothness and integration for interchanging iOS and Mac users. Several iOS features to be ported to Macs are showcased here. Notable mentions such as iMessage, Reminders and Notes should make iOS device aficionados feel right at home and without separation anxiety as their iDevice charges away or their own eyes need a bit of a break from concentrating in small iScreens. This development pairs with the speculation that the next iDevices will include the industrial-grade quad-core A6 point to what Jefferies analyst Peter Misek posited last summer. He saw iOS and Mac platform unify no later than the end of 2012, with the A6 coming on line and finding duty in Apple's MacBook Air line. Misek sees completion of this unification complete by 2016, when the larger Apple machines such as MacBook Pro and iMac ditch Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to adopt Apple's own ARM processors--by then 64-bit-endowed.Aside from satisfying Apple's penchant for simplicity and integration, as well as user ease of use, what other advantages could result from such a move?For starters, Apple may become more of a darling to the business community. The company's iDevices have proven such a hit with empployees in their own private time, that companies are increasingly sanctioning them as official business tools. Full integration would extend similar treatment to the company's Mac machines. Research and development would get a whole lot easier, not only for Apple (obviously), but also for its burgeoning third party application developer community. Creativity will run rampant, unencumbered by platform limitations of the iOS or the relatively limited (for now) Mac Store audience. Apple is already becoming a content juggernaut, so a unified platform would streamline and simplify what are bound to be some pretty complicated negotiations with original content providers. (It goes without saying, then, that the much-rumored Apple TV would be yet another denizen of this unified platform).Parallel to this runs the opportunity multiplier within Apple's iAd program. Already popular with Apple's mobile computing, iAd seems a natural extension to the enlarged real estate and arguably more actionable Mac environment. Alsp, we cannot stress Apple's upcoming TV venture enough in terms of the quality of the advertising opportunity.Apple is not alone in the platform unification. The upcoming Windows 8 from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is rumored to accommodate both desktop and mobile applications. And of course, With Linux being a donor for Android, this developments bears potentially interesting developments for the computer industry in a post-PC era.