Frederico Viticci had dug deep down into what Craig Federighi meant by “Desktop-class Browsing on iPad OS” at WWDC 2019. In a nutshell, Frederico found that it truly is about the ability to use fully use web apps intended for PCs on the iPad. This has interesting implications.
With their web apps now fully functional on the iPad, developers will have less incentive to create iPad apps. A web app or some thin wrapper around a WebView kind of app will suffice.
On the other hand, Swift UI and Project Catalyst provide a strong incentive to build an iPad app. Even if you don’t yet have an iPad app, you will surely have something for the iPhone, and this means that you will already have a foundation for building apps that run from the iPhone to the iPad to the Mac. Furthermore, Swift UI will make the task of creating a great UI so much easier.
So will we end up having more native apps on the iPad or will we end up having less. It will be interesting to see how the developers think through the pros and cons.
Naofumi Kagami 