A recent Apple Inc. job posting has revealed that the company intends to focus on bringing the iPhone OS onto new gadgets, devices and platforms.

The job posting from the Cupertino, CA, company specifically calls for an engineering manager to handle “platform bring-up.” In the job description, Apple states that it’s looking for a manager “to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms.” It seems like Apple wants some outside talent with very strong technical experience, especially when it comes to bringing software onto multiple hardware devices. Computerworld first caught the job post.

Here are the first two paragraphs of the job posting, which explains exactly what the company is looking for:

“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.”

The job requires someone with experience developing for the Unix operating system, experience with system-on-chip (SoC) level design and experience with “bring-up of mobile phones running Unix like operating systems.”

This job posting is very specific — not a lot of people are going to have this type of experience. We think it’s likely Apple is targeting product managers for Google Android since it is built off of a modified version of the Linux kernel and it has experience porting Android onto multiple handsets.

What Is Apple’s Plan?

This job posting raises a lot of questions. Clearly Apple wants to expand the iphone OS, but where exactly? Does it intend to create multiple phones running the iPhone OS? Could something like AppleTV or even the Mac or Macbook gain the iPhone OS interface? It’s tough to tell and probably too early to know as well.

Let’s think about each of these scenarios for a moment:

1. Apple stops just selling one iPhone, but creates multiple models to suit multiple tastes, possibly including a version with a keyboard. Apple would retain control over all of these models, but it would use them to compete with BlackBerry, Android and other smartphones even further. It could also create a less-advanced version for users that don’t want an advanced smartphone, but that would be out of character with Apple’s history.

We think there’s a chance it could create multiple models of the iPhone, but this is probably not the primary plan.

2. Apple brings the iPhone OS to AppleTV. It would certainly provide a boost and new attention to a mostly fledgling and forgotten project, but most TVs are not touchscreens. We’re not sure about this one.

3. Apple creates new computers that utilize the iPhone OS as its primary OS. We think this is actually the most likely scenario — it gives Apple full control over the user experience and gives it a chance to redefine computing for years to come. It seems like a next step from the ipad, although we’re uncertain how receptive people would be to a low-cost computer running the iPhone OS instead of the Mac OS orWindows.

Apple is clearly bullish on its OS and thinks it is the future of computing and mobile. Now it’s just a matter of what device it puts it in next.