iPhone OS everywhere

This week Apple is going to unveil various updated iPod models and probably some other consumer media devices. Around our house, the new iPod Touch is eagerly awaited by someone who is too old to believe in Santa but still thinks he has an account at the Apple Store.

Ryan Kim of the SF Chronicle has a great article summarizing Apple’s shift away from Mac OS X and towards iOS everywhere:

"I think the iOS operating system is so powerful for Apple, it's generating most of their revenues, between the iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, iTunes and the App Store," said independent mobile analyst Brian Hall. "Clearly, I think Apple realizes that they want to continue down this path."

Some speculate that Macs will eventually run iOS, and Kim quotes Steve Jobs himself:

Steve Jobs has acknowledged the shift, saying the future of Apple is in lighter, non-PC devices, which he likened to cars, comparing computers to old trucks used during the country's agrarian past.

"PCs are going to be like trucks," Jobs said at the D8 conference in June. "They're still going to be around, they're still going to have a lot of value, but they're going to be used by one out of X people."

The article concludes with a quote of Jean-Louis Gasée, the former Apple VP of R&D whose stubbornness (along with John Sculley’s cluelessness) nearly killed the company:

Jean-Louis Gassee, a partner at venture capital firm Allegis Capital and a former Apple executive, said he's doubtful Apple will bring iOS to the Mac because it will add too much complexity, something Apple traditionally avoids. But he said iOS, combined with iTunes, has given the company a system it never had with the Mac.

"It's obvious from Apple's actions they believe in the future of iOS," he said. "They're putting a lot of resources behind it. With iOS and iTunes, Apple has an ecosystem with no equal."

The article is must reading — it’s about as complete a job as you could expect for pre-announcement speculation, and I can’t really add to it.