Apple Collaborating With LG to Develop iPads and MacBooks With Foldable OLED Displays and Ultra-Thin Cover Glass

[SlaveToSwift]

That’s because you never have used it. Foldable tablet will work.

Foldable tablets can work today. But that doesn't mean they don't suck now and won't suck in the future. What is the benefit of a foldable tablet anyways? A smaller but thicker form factor to carry current sizes of iPads around? if it's just that, its a heavy price to pay in making a worse screen when its unfolded, and more likely to fail from all the folding/unfolding.

If it's just to be able to have a huge 20 inch tablet that will easier to carry, I get that but how big will that market ever be?

 

[SlaveToSwift]

The issue I have with the idea of a full sized on-screen keyboard, is the lack of bio-mechanical input. Sure, we got used to phone-sized on-screen keyboards, but as you increase the size of the screen, I think we’re losing too much of the input feedback of actual mechanical key movement, which effects productivity (speed and accuracy). That’s a trade-off I’m not willing to accept, all for the ability to get a larger screen when unfolded (which would then require a separate input device to work).

Apple is never replacing the Mac keyboard with a typeable screen. I could maybe see return of the touchbar where the screen extends past the hinge to the top of the physical keyboard, but again with the decreased durability and limited value I'm skeptical.

 

[MobiusStrip]

April 1 is so pitifully boring.

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Like it or not, foldable displays are the future. The technology will improve, leaving behind the various issues of today.

You have no way of knowing if that is true. It's impossible they will ever reach the build quality of a flat screen, and it's unlikely they'll ever offer the same tactile and visual quality of a flat screen. So the question is, at one point do their benefits outweigh their drawbacks?

Clearly for phones there will be a niche where people will accept the quality tradeoffs and a fatter phone that fits better in their pocket in order to have a much larger display when using it. But beyond that I don't see many benefits. Would you buy a foldable TV for your living room or bedroom? Why? What would be the point other than a worse TV?

 

[SlaveToSwift]

Oh OK, this guy ^^ played with flexible LCDs in the 90s and they sucked. We’re done here.

Way to ignore a bunch of rational fact based points while you pick up your ball and run away. We will miss you.

 

[markbackwards]

April Fool's!

 

[szw-mapple fan]

If foldable displays have even a 5% market share in 2030, I will buy a hat and eat it.

The idea is stupid for so many reasons from engineering to aesthetic to simple HCI.

I suspect this is an April fool but you just can’t tell now.

Given that foldable phones account for more than 5% of the global market already, it's not all that far fetched. The main bottleneck is the durability and the crease, which would likely be a solvable problem given enough time.

 

[caoimhin]

To quote the President of the Federation in Star Trek VI:

“Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing.”

 

[mazz0]

Touch screens work fine where you can place them in a comfortable using position. A touch screen iMac or MacBook in their current form factor would get old to use very quickly, because your arms will get tired. Touch surfaces need to be able to be held flat or allow your arms to rest somewhere, in the same way an iPad, foldable laptop, or how the Surface Studio works.

Spare us Apple’s tired old excuses. They just want to sell us two devices instead of one.

My iPad in its Magic Keyboard is basically a touchscreen laptop and it’s awesome. Except for its horrendously crippled software.

Whenever I switch to a proper laptop I keep finding myself going to touch the screen and being annoyed that I can’t.

 

[mazz0]

…foldable phones account for more than 5% of the global market already…

That’s hard to believe. Very hard. Can you show us your source?

 

[darngooddesign]

I'm not sure why people are worried about screen durability. No one cuts Apple slack on hardware issues, think of all the gates, so if they release a folding phone it will be fine.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

That’s hard to believe. Very hard. Can you show us your source?

This is the article I saw last year I think, but I can’t seem to find the counterpoint research it’s referencing, so take it with a large amount of salt.

Even if it’s a lot less, it’s a lot more popular in Asia right now than in the rest of the world, the Samsung folds being their fastest selling phones last year during Q3 in Korea, ahead of even the S21. If the phablet trend is anything to go by, 5% is not all that far fetched by 2030 if they manage to solve the hardware limitations. Already last year’s foldables from Samsung and Oppo are miles ahead of the foldables 3 years ago, so there is promise.

 

[Tozovac]

ill be disappointed if something lIke this appears before a dual boot OS X/iOS MacIPad.

 

[chucker23n1]

Given that foldable phones account for more than 5% of the global market already,

No they don’t. 0.5%, and projected to reach 1.8% by 2025.

 

[darngooddesign]

ill be disappointed if something lIke this appears before a dual boot OS X/iOS MacIPad.

Everyone says they want that, but no one ever thinks about how it would work in real life.

 

[happygodavid]

To me, the best eventual use case for a foldable display is the iPhone. I would love a “regular size” iPhone that folds in half to slip into my pocket. I can imagine the exact thickness of the current model, but half as thin when it folds open. I just can’t imagine the tech being ready (I.e.-durable, inexpensive, seamless) for at least another decade, maybe even two. But anyone saying it will never happen hasn’t lived that long. Tech just has to catch up with the idea.

 

[darngooddesign]

To me, the best eventual use case for a foldable display is the iPhone. I would love a “regular size” iPhone that folds in half to slip into my pocket. I can imagine the exact thickness of the current model, but half as thin when it folds open. I just can’t imagine the tech being ready (I.e.-durable, inexpensive, seamless) for at least another decade, maybe even two. But anyone saying it will never happen hasn’t lived that long. Tech just has to catch up with the idea.

Samsung and Motorola both make that.

 

[chucker23n1]

Samsung and Motorola both make that.

You’ve quoted: “the exact thickness of the current model, but half as thin when it folds open”.

The Galaxy Z Flip3 is 15.9mm thick.

The Fold3: 14.4mm.

The Razr 2020: 16mm.

The iPhone 13 Pro: 7.65mm.

So, nah.

 

[jlc1978]

ill be disappointed if something lIke this appears before a dual boot OS X/iOS MacIPad.

Such a device makes no sense to me. It would likely involve tradeoffs that make either a poor computer or bad tablet, and likely a mediocre combination of the two. If anything, greater program interoperability while still allowing optimization for the device used would be a more realistic option.

Everyone says they want that, but no one ever thinks about how it would work in real life.

I have a MBP and iPad with Apple's keyboard/touchpad case. If MS Office was feature compatible withe the Mac version it would be a viable portable replacement for my MBP.

The problem comes in when I want to use it as an iPad. I need to detach the case if I want to use it in portrait mode, so now I need to have a place to store the case while I use the iPad. If the keyboard folded flat to the back, as in some devices I've tried, you either wind up with keys on the back where you are trying to hold it or a complex hinge mechanism that would be prone to failure.

In addition, the iPad keys, while nice, are not as good as my MBP. Apple could make a detachable keyboard that magnetically sticks to the back, similar to how the pencil works.

Then there is the issue of ports. A computer needs more than 1 USB-C port for most users. Having them on the screen part means wires sticking out of both sides of the screen. Putting them into the keyboard means designing reliable high speed connections between keyboard and case.

Finally, you'd need a notch on the long side of the iPad screen...

None of this is insurmountable if Apple decides to build such a device; I just think it's not in their plans. Right now, the Mac and iPad are two separate devices, targeted at different markets as well as complementary devices to encourage people who own a Mac to get an iPad and vice versa.

 

[Tozovac]

Such a device makes no sense to me. It would likely involve tradeoffs that make either a poor computer or bad tablet, and likely a mediocre combination of the two. If anything, greater program interoperability while still allowing optimization for the device used would be a more realistic option.

I don't think you understand.

The screen size of my 12.9 inch M1 iPad Pro is similar enough to my M1 MBA.

Using my M1 iPad Pro with Apple's Smart or Magic Keyboards is a rather nice experience and doesn't feel too disimilar to working on my MBA (outside of the crappy iOS operating system for trying to complex productive woourk such as is usually done on a Mac with OSX).

Take a look at the latest iMacs and tell me they don't look like in iPad on a stick.

Now imagine a 12.9 inch M1 iPad that can boot as either an iPad with iPadOS, or as a Mac with OSX. One that you could use as a 12.9 inch M1 iPad in iPadOS mode, or one that you could dock to a Magic Keyboard or iMac-like stand and run in Monterey OS.

Ever try running an iOS app on an M1 Mac mini or MacBook? So there's already some cross-pollination.

How is a dual-boot MaciPad a mediocre combination?

 

[Tozovac]

Everyone says they want that, but no one ever thinks about how it would work in real life.

See my above post. It would be no different than today's iPad on a stick iPad with an external keyboard (in OSX mode). Or like an iPad with a Magic or Smart Keyboard (in either iPadOS or OSX mode). Or like an iPad in your hands or lap (in iPadOS mode).

 

[darngooddesign]

See my above post. It would be no different than today's iPad on a stick iPad with an external keyboard (in OSX mode). Or like an iPad with a Magic or Smart Keyboard (in either iPadOS or OSX mode). Or like an iPad in your hands or lap (in iPadOS mode).

So what happens if you have to edit an OS X document but you don’t have the keyboard or mouse with you? Drive home? Apple can’t get most developers to click a button so their iOS apps run on Mac OS, you think they can get them to rebuild their OS X app Ui to work with an on screen keyboard and touch?

 

[Tozovac]

So what happens if you have to edit an OS X document but you don’t have the keyboard and mouse with you? Drive home?

Simple, you take your keyboard along with your MaciPad. Just like you'd travel with your MacBook and its keyboard. Sure would be nice to travel with just your MaciPad instead of your iPad and MacBook, no?

 

[darngooddesign]

Simple, you take your keyboard along with your MaciPad. Just like you'd travel with your MacBook and its keyboard. Sure would be nice to travel with just your MaciPad instead of your iPad and MacBook, no?

I don’t see Apple putting Mac OS on the iPad until it reworks it for onscreen keyboard with larger hit targets. And that’s a while off because the entire os needs to be rethought.

For example, I have a windows 10!work laptop and I can’t tap links in Outlook to launch them, doing so selects the text, because it’s still a desktop is. I still have to use the trackpad or mouse.

The whole, Mac OS, but only if you have a keyboard and mouse is an awkward and un-Apple solution. It’s only going to happen if it’s seamless and can be used with touch.

 

[chucker23n1]

macOS is not coming to the iPad.