Why Macos Development Still Matters Options

[chickadee]

While much of the Football Bros developer spotlight goes to mobile (iOS) and cloud/web apps, Macs remain an important platform — for productivity, creative workflows, tools, and increasingly enterprise/AI workloads. For developers building for macOS, there are some unique advantages:

A unified ecosystem (macOS + iPadOS + iOS + visionOS) with shared frameworks (Swift, SwiftUI, etc.).

The transition to Apple Silicon, which gives Macs a more consistent architecture.

A still-less-crowded market in many Mac app niches compared to mobile.

On-device compute features (ML, video/image processing) becoming stronger on Mac hardware.

If you build for macOS, you’re well-positioned for interesting opportunities — but also need to be aware of how the platform is changing.

Key trends in Mac software development

Here’s a breakdown of major shifts you should watch, along with how they specifically impact macOS / Mac app development.

1. AI & on-device intelligence
2. Shift in distribution & business models
3. Platform convergence & design alignment
4. Swift, SwiftUI & modern tooling
5. Cloud/Edge and expanded hardware use
6. Cross-device / ecosystem experiences
7. Platform fragmentation & selective target audiences

If you like, I can highlight 5 specific technical areas you should invest in (APIs, frameworks, tooling) right now as a Mac-app developer — would that be useful?