After thinking about it for a while (and reading other’s reactions around the web), it’s starting to make a little more sense… The iPhone (and, truth be told, the AppleTV) are the next outlets for OS X. I’m almost positive (as are others) that the next iteration of the OS will have a resolution independent scaling engine for the main UI elements. This is directly useful in the iPhone, since it’s display has a pixel density almost 4 times that of a standard computer LCD screen. Plus Core Animation. Plus a host of other things at the core of the OS. So it makes sense that the Leopard team would be working feverishly on the iPhone OS as well. It’s two strains of the same thing.

There’s an old axiom in computer science that states “adding developers to a late software project only makes it later.” (this applies to more than just software, but for that particular discipline, it’s acutely true). However, in this case, people weren’t added to a wholly different product. Their focus was just expanded to include a larger target platform space.

Have you noticed that there’s room for 5 more icons on the main iPhone screen? Do you think those “secret” features that haven’t been announced for Leopard are only for the desktop version of the OS? What if one of those secret features was the iPhone itself?

Something tells me that this will just make the iPhone better. And that’s a good thing. I’m still curious what it’s going to do for the Pro Apps, though. I’ll find out in Vegas in a couple of days.