‘With macOS, you’d lose what makes iPad iPad’: Apple explains why it’ll never let its tablets become full Macs

• Apple isn’t merging iPadOS and macOS, says the company’s Craig Federighi
• Doing so would “lose what makes iPad iPad,” Federighi explained
• iPadOS 26 tries to balance simplicity and power-user features

Spend enough time in the Apple ecosystem and you’ll hear one question pop up again and again: “will Apple ever merge its iPads and Macs?” Whether the question is being asked by a seasoned journalist or your uncle when you come to visit, plenty of people want to know the answer.

After a WWDC 2025 where iPadOS 26 was outfitted with a bunch of Mac-like features – from improved window management to an on-screen menu bar – that question has reared its head again. Yet it’s something that Apple has just come out and addressed head-on.

In an interview with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier (via MacRumors), Apple’s software chief Craig Federighi put it this way: “With macOS, you’d lose what makes iPad iPad, which is the ultimate touch device. But there are lots of things the two platforms can learn from one another, and that’s where we’ve adapted our best ideas to each.”

In other words, macOS Tahoe simply isn’t designed for tablets. But while putting the full-blown macOS on an iPad might not make sense right now, Apple is still happy to borrow ideas from each platform and spread them around its products – as we saw at WWDC.

Will iPadOS and macOS ever merge?

So why not just leave iPadOS and macOS completely separate? Why share features among the platforms, which inevitably leads to questions about merging iPads and Macs?

According to Federighi, “We want to retain all the simplicity of the iPad but still allow iPad users who want to go deeper and further to push it at their own pace to doing more.” That means adding features that can enhance the experience for more demanding users, without adding needless complexity.

To that end, Apple has designed its new iPadOS features so that you can essentially toggle the multi-window mode on and off. If you prefer the old way of working, with fullscreen apps that don’t overlap, you can use that. If you want to use multiple windows as you can in macOS, you can switch to that mode.

Yet there’s one more consideration: the rumor that Apple is planning to launch a 19-inch foldable device that blurs the line between the iPad and the Mac. This is apparently due to launch around 2028, and it will be fascinating to see how Apple’s software handles such a product. Perhaps then we’ll finally know if Apple ever plans to merge iPadOS and macOS.

You might also like

• Apple's rumored foldable iPad tipped to launch sooner than expected with an exciting software twist
• Don't call it a Mac – I went hands-on with iPadOS 26, here's what you need to know
• 'Our biggest iPadOS release ever' – iPadOS 26 has landed, here are the 10 biggest upgrades