No Catalyst Apps Have Replaced AppKit Apps
As John Gruber points out on Twitter:
It is very conspicuous that Apple hasn’t abandoned a single one of its AppKit apps in favor of UIKit via Catalyst. Not one.
Maybe you could argue Podcasts counts, because they could have derived that from iTunes too, like Music and TV. But still: games, media consumption, toys.
I’ve not going to say I wasn’t worried about this before WWDC, because I was. But Apple’s measured Catalyst strategy, SwiftUI support both AppKit and UIKit, and the new Mac Pro, have put me at ease. I’m once again confident that Apple’s long-term strategy includes AppKit, and therefore, pro apps.
The reason I was so worried about this is that, based on my analysis of pro software market share1, the outcome of transitioning off AppKit would have been pro app developers abandoning the Mac for more hospitable platforms.