@OP
The Forbes article is tripe.
No matter any delusions or reality distortion fields, in order for Apple tablet to take over and replace the laptop line:
1. They would need to be as powerful as comparable laptops are, allowing people to develop and debug both iOS and macOS (and watchOS) apps. We're still a ways off here.
2. Their input devices would need to be
better than a touch screen and be a real and usable keyboard for someone to be able to use it for 8+ hours a day. Similarly, a 'projected' keyboard or purely OLED keyboard fails for the same reason - it's neat and futuristic, but not ergonomic or efficient to try to type on to get real work done (e.g. coding) for full work days.
3. iOS would need to become a lot more full-featured, or - run macOS. Now, this one may well be a possibility, as I believe iOS is a branched and minimized offshoot of iOS, but how they may or may not converge...is an exercise in guesswork and likely a ways off. Even if this happened - #s 1 and 2 above still apply.
Then there's the whole concept of ecosystem
someone at Apple is surely aware of.
Old time Mac guys decided to extend their Apple purchases so bought a tablet and phone, and watch.
Likewise for various creative types.
Others found their way 'in' due to picking up and iPhone and liking it, so bought a MacBook and/or tablet, or all of the above + a watch.
Developers have had the option of
trying a MB or MBP and running Windows in a VM or BootCamp, so while they are passable, they may decide to give iOS and/or macOS development a try as well.
Similarly, budding new devs who
may want to give App development a try - need a reasonably priced system to give a whirl (e.g. lower end 13" MBPs)....which if it doesn't work out for them, they either solely run Windows or sell it. Ensuring a reasonably priced entry option exists remains important, even if not to many reading this.
MacBreak Weekly said as much in their latest podcast.
Basically, Apple is on of the only companies willing to let one product kill off another. They're moving towards a post PC era and while they're improving the MBPs, they understand that touch first devices are the future. That future isn't here yet, as the laptops and desktops still can do a lot more then a tablet can but its catching up. They foresee a day where the iPad is replacing the MBP.
When looking at Apple's moves and decisions through that perspective, it does make sense in not putting touch on their laptops, and just making them lighter and thinner.
You can't kill the Dev environments or the 'satellite devices' (phone, tablet watch) all die off w/out apps.
Meanwhile, fewer and fewer are buying desktops, so your laptop had best satisfy most, including developers.
iOS makes a ton more money for Apple than MacOS. They get a cut from App downloads, subscriptions, movie/tv show/music, and Apple Pay. I'm not saying they don't make any money from the same things on MacOS but they make a lot more of it on iOS, especially on the app side.
Apple tested the water with the iPad Pro to see how consumers would react, and so far it hasn't really taken off. At some point I think we'll see tablets being more powerful in terms of CPU power than laptops/desktops. Apple knows that a touch interface will become more prevalent and hence the touch bar on the MacBooks. I think eventually the bottom of the Mac will become a touchscreen.
Or it's just Apple milking the laptop industry for profits before it goes to hell
And eventually, the well runs dry when Apple prices out developers or pretends the toy tablets are in any way capable of being a development system for professional devs (or many others).
This is not taking away from the iPad Pro for those users who
can actually not need anything more, but we are
far from that being anything resembling a universal truth covering several important segments of users. Personally, I don't see iOS as every reaching that point, not unless they merge it in as effectively a sub-system or touch layer of macOS.
