At WWDC 2018 Apple gave a super sneak preview of a project that has been code named "Marzipan". A project that will give iOS developers the ability to easily port their applications to be fully featured macOS applications.
There is still a lot that is very unknown about this technology, but here are some initial thoughts and what I believe this means for the future of the Mac.
First, it's important to recognize that Apple has been very clear that this doesn't mean the merger of the iOS and macOS platforms. Apple has also seemed to very adamantly deny the rumors that touch screen macOS computers will be coming to market in the future. That being said, Apple has been known to change course and deny rumors in public only to do it later on. Mainly this has been changes that Tim Cook has made that Steve Jobs was very against. But Apple is known to change their mindset on things, and Marzipan lays the ground work perfectly should they ever want to change course and develop a touch screen mac.
In the meantime I think we will see a major influx of iOS apps on the macOS platform. There are certain experiences that I would love to see come to the macOS platform from iOS.
The first major one is iMessage Apps on the Mac. Of course there are a lot of experiences that this doesn't make sense for. But certain ones where I think it could be very valuable. There are checkers and chess games on the iPhone that I think would make a lot of sense to be able to be played on iMessages for the Mac. Bringing iMessage Apps full circle and integrating that into the Mac platform I think makes a lot of sense under the Marzipan platform.
The other super major one I'd love to see is the TV app on the Mac. The TV app is great for finding what services I can watch a certain TV show or movie on. With the likelihood of networks bringing their apps to the Mac I think the TV app will be a natural progression here.
There are a lot of other applications that I think make a lot of sense on the Mac. The weather app, the clock app for being able to set alarms and timers on your Mac. Find my Friends and Find my iPhone I think would be great additions to the Mac platform. Apple released a few applications for the Mac that use this technology. News, Stocks, Home, and Voice Memos. It would make a lot of sense to see this technology expand to other Apple applications in the near future.
The whole Marzipan project and this sneak peak by Apple really reminds me of Apple's "Back to the Mac" keynote in late 2010. Once again Apple is bringing things full circle and trying to make sure their platforms remain tightly integrated.