Apple has no plans to merge iPadOS and macOS into a single operating system, CEO John Ternus said during the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on November 2, according to a MacRumors report.
The question came from Richard Kramer of Arete Research, who asked whether Apple should be expected to bring macOS and iOS features closer together, potentially moving toward one operating system for the sake of simplicity or lower costs. Kramer pointed to the company's latest MacBook Pro models, which borrow ideas long associated with the iPhone, including a touchscreen and a Dynamic Island-style cutout.
Ternus responded that Apple is proud of both the Mac and the iPad and likes to share features across the two product lines, citing Handoff as one example. He then added that the company has no fundamentally different changes planned at the moment, and would not discuss any such plans if it did. His exact words, as quoted by MacRumors from a transcript published by Six Colors, were: "we don't have any fundamentally different changes that we're planning right now, nor would we talk about it anyway."
The answer is consistent with Apple's long-standing position. MacRumors notes that Craig Federighi, Apple's head of software engineering, said in a 2025 interview that Apple does not want to build "sporks," arguing that "it turns out it's not a good spoon and it's not a good fork." That image has become shorthand for Apple's view that a hybrid device or operating system tends to compromise both sides.
Even so, the hardware is converging in visible ways. Ternus took over as Apple's chief executive on September 1, 2026, and the newly launched OLED MacBook Pro models are the first Apple laptops with touchscreens, a feature that has been exclusive to iPhone and iPad until now. Macs and iPads also already share chips, display technologies and a growing list of continuity features.
For now, then, the message from Apple's new CEO is that the two platforms stay separate, even as they borrow more from each other. Ternus's careful wording about future changes leaves room for evolution in how the two product lines interact, but not, apparently, for a single combined operating system on the current roadmap.
The remarks came in the same call in which Apple reported record September-quarter revenue of $114.5 billion.
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