IT News on November 3rd: For many years, Apple has not had any plans to merge iPadOS and macOS into a single operating system. Will this stance change now that John Ternus has taken office as the new CEO?

During Apple's fourth-quarter fiscal year 2026 earnings conference call, an analyst asked whether Apple would unify iPadOS and macOS, to which Ternus responded.

The full text of the related Q&A for IT's home is as follows:

Arete Research Analyst Richard Kramer: The new MacBook Pro has incorporated many iOS features, such as touch operations, the Dynamic Island, and also Siri AI. Should we expect further integration of the features from macOS and iOS, and perhaps even the formation of a unified operating system at some point in the future to reduce costs?

John Ternus: We are very proud of our two product lines, Mac and iPad. I believe that over the years, everyone has seen our commitment to integrating functions and capabilities within the ecosystem to create highly attractive cross-device experiences. The "relay" feature of iPhone, iPad, and Mac is a great example of this.

Therefore, when designing products, what we focus on is how to bring each product to its optimal state. If you take a look at our MacBook Pro that we just launched last week, you will find that this product has made a huge leap forward. The new MacBook Pro surpasses the previous models in every aspect, and we are very proud of that.

So, we currently have no plans to make any fundamental changes. And even if there were such plans, we would not discuss them in advance.

It is worth noting that Craig Federighi, Apple's senior software engineer, Craig Federighi, answered a similar question in 2025. At that time, he stated that Apple did not want to create a "fork and spoon" Spork because such a utensil is neither a good spoon nor a good fork.