Teradome.

I’d be willing to say that this year might be the last year we see major front-end changes in Mac OS X.

Last night it struck me that the Mac desktop is now the equivalent of the tuning console your car mechanic might use to make fine adjustments to your car’s internal systems when you bring it in. The car, obviously enough, is now the iPhone OS.

I don’t think Apple wants to, or even could, eliminate Mac OS X entirely, but they’ve made it painfully obvious with their iPhone OS devices that the common, consumer-facing computer is not going to be running the windowed OS as we know it today.

Apple needs Mac OS X to be that turning panel. It’s the OS for people who make stuff, and focusing on creative arts is what they’ve always done.

But the pressure to make the OS sexy is gone now — the Snow Leopard release is practically proof of this. What’s important now is to make Mac OS X a solid professional’s development platform, and part of solidifying this has been keeping iPhone and iPad development on Mac OS X.

Mac OS X is the back-end to create the iPhone OS front-end, and both are premier experiences.

Soon, the premiere iLife experience won’t be on Mac OS X, it’ll be on iPad. Not immediately — Apple still needs to sell laptops — but it will happen. The only question remaining is when, if ever, iPhone OS metaphors start appearing on Mac OS X, and when these devices change from current laptops to future tablets.