Apple shares its vision for macOS 10.15 Catalina: Cross-platform apps are key

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  Apple’s new framework, Project Catalyst, will help iOS developers translate existing mobile apps into macOS apps.

SAN JOSE, Calif.—The next major operating system update for Apple’s Mac computers will bring new apps, a handful of quality life improvements, and, most importantly, a far-reaching initiative to (at least partially) unify the app-development process across devices running iOS and macOS. This new initiative is at the heart of Apple’s future macOS strategy and is a cornerstone of the newly announced macOS 10.15 Catalina update.

Here’s what we learned at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference today.

Apple hopes the initiative will rejuvenate a slow-moving Mac app store and native software ecosystem. The initiative will do so by making it easier for developers for the iPhone and iPad App Store—one of the most robust software platforms in the world—to release their iOS applications on the Mac with minimal additional development time. Currently, developers have to put valuable resources into developing their successful applications for the Mac, which has a much smaller install base than iOS. It doesn’t help that they then must support two completely different codebases for the entire lifespan of both applications.