Apple today released developer preview of their next generation OS X Mountain Lion operating system and following this launch both Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and senior vice president of product marketing talked with press about new features in the OS and the direction Apple is taking…

Tim Cook gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he talked about several features that Apple is bringing from iPad and iPhone to OS X. The two most interesting things that Tim told WSJ were:

"We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here," said Mr. Cook, 51 years old, pointing at his iPhone. "Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac."

Mr. Cook said he already thinks of Apple's iOS and OS X operating systems "as one with incremental functionality." He said both laptops and tablets will continue to coexist, but he didn't rule out that the technologies could converge further. When asked if Apples iPhones, iPads and Macs might run the same microprocessor chips, he said: "We think about everything. We don't close things off."

On the other hand, Phil gave an interview to Bloomberg in which he also talked about the new features as well as features specifically designed to support Chinese users. Bloomberg’s Rich Jaroslovsky posted:

Schiller said Apple was able to get an early start on Mountain Lion because of all the work done to prepare Lion, which reviewers said marked the most sweeping changes in OS X since its 2001 inception. He said the company has so far shipped 17 million copies of Lion, making it the company’s best-selling release ever.

Schiller outlined a host of new features that will be specific to Chinese users, including changes aimed at making it easier for them to type in information and access local e-mail providers. Apple added built-in options to use the Baidu Inc. search engine, Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging service and Youku Inc. and Tudou Holdings Ltd.’s video sites.

One thing both the interviews revealed is that the predication by many analysts that Apple will move away from Mac and focus just on iOS products is completely wrong. In fact Apple is accelerating the pace of OS X development and will now release update every year like they do with iOS.