Native Mac Apps Will Be Fine
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Native Mac Apps Will Be Fine
Earlier this week, I was listening to John Gruber and Ben Thompson’s excellent podcast Dithering when Thompson made an interesting point about Mac software that I hadn’t considered. During the November 13th episode, “The Mac’s Differentiation,” Thompson argued that the M1 Mac has leveled the playing field between native Mac apps and web apps, setting the Mac up to succeed in an increasingly web app-dominated world while potentially undermining the advantages of native Mac software.
I’ve been thinking about Thompson’s point ever since. I understand where he’s coming from and agree that the M1 is poised to make web apps, whether they are run in a browser tab or use technologies like Electron, more competitive with native Mac apps, but I don’t think that spells doom for native apps. To be fair, Thompson wasn’t declaring native apps dead either, but as someone who has always preferred native apps, the discussion on Dithering got me thinking about what the effect of the M1 Macs might be.