Edible Apple

Seth Weintraub of Computerworld directs us to a job listing on Apple’s website which hints at Cupertino’s plans to potentially bring the iPhone OS to a number of different platforms outside of the iPhone/iPod and iPad.

The advertised job title is for an “Engineering Manager (Platform Bring-Up)” and the job description reads as follows:

The Core Platform team within Apple’s Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms. The team is responsible for low level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms. The team consists of talented engineers with experience in hardware, firmware, IOKit drivers, security and platform architecture.

This position requires a very technical and hands-on leader, experience in working closely with hardware team and a deep understanding of bare metal software. You must be a highly self-motivated individual who seeks to create a dynamic and creative team environment in which old problems are solved in new and innovative ways.

So what sort of new platforms might Apple have in mind? Weintraub speculates that Apple may be looking at products as far ranging as the Apple TV and the MacBook Air, along with the possibility that Apple may use the iPhone OS to anchor low end versions of the Mac Mini and MacBook.

Interesting theory, but we wouldn’t go that far. Apple has never been about the low end, and low end versions of a product like the MacBook would a) eat into margins and b) potentially hurt iPad sales. Either way, Apple clearly has designs for its iPhone OS that extends much further than its current lineup of mobile products. For all we know, Apple is keen on bringing up the iPhone OS to run on entirely new kinds of hardware that don’t even exist yet.  What we do know, tough, is that Apple views its iPhone OS and ARM architecture combo as a 1-2 punch with plenty of room to grow.