Foldable MacBook-iPad Hybrid Device Likely to Run macOS, Analyst Says

[subjonas]

Not for general use otherwise we’d be going back in time to the stylus.

I think it depends on the OS (and its apps). If it’s a touch OS then of course there should be touch, but a mouse/keyboard OS in tablet form factor would need a pen/stylus for general use too because of the precision required. I see touch as more optional in that case. I don’t see macOS/apps becoming touch-optimized any time soon though—and if not, then the only other reason to put the software in tablet form is to have pen support. It wouldn’t make much sense for the main input method to be touch or to have to attach a keyboard/trackpad stand each time.

 

[jlc1978]

For now I'm fine with each computing device being autonomous as long as it has access to the same data and sharing among them is seamless, which it mostly is.

That, IMHO, is one of the most important capabilities of a family of devices. The ability to seamlessly move from one to the other by maintaining access to data doesn’t tie you to one device. Rather than try to force an OS designed for a keyboard/mouse environment, increase the capabilities of iPadOS to better mirror those of MacOS; such as not making programs stripped down versions of those on the Mac. M iPads certainly have the power to run a more capable iPadOS and programs.

MS tried making a the Windows metaphor work on phones and, as someone who had a Jornada and Treo running it, it was a miserable experience. Anecdotally, friends who have Surface devices or touch screen PCs only seem to use the touch screen for scrolling; which is one area a touch screen seems useful. Apple could build a capacitive border around teh screen to add that capability; but I doubt we’d ever see that.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

How would one type on this without looking at the keys?

Why would one need to avoid looking at the keys? I’m typing this on my iPad, and the text field is right above the keyboard. You can’t miss ‘em.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

macOS is a dream. iPadOS is more likely. But why can't it run both, let the user choose which one?

My suspicion is that the user WILL make a choice, same way they do now, buy the device with macOS or buy the device with iPadOS. They’ll just physically look very similar.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Er no. People actually like being able to work efficiently and multitask on their devices. You know, doing some coding in Visual Studio, Cmd-tab to Excel, copy some cells, Cmd-tab to Terminal, paste some data, Mission control to find Slack, type a few messages, open the Database explorer, view table schemas, have Mail running in the background, use Finder etc.

iPadOS just doesn't cut it, it's a souped-up iOS that can "sort of" do most things but doesn't do any of them well. Apple already have an OS that works well: macOS.

By the 20th word, you’ve left 90% of “people” in general behind. Apple currently sells 20+ million Macs a year. In the future, that number could be as low as 5 million with all the non-developers choosing something less Mac-like.

 

[Crickster]

Why would one need to avoid looking at the keys? I’m typing this on my iPad, and the text field is right above the keyboard. You can’t miss ‘em.

Everyone is different and some might not mind it, but personally it would be extremely unproductive to code using a touch keyboard. This takes me back to having the esc key on the Touch Bar which was terrible.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Everyone is different and some might not mind it, but personally it would be extremely unproductive to code using a touch keyboard. This takes me back to having the esc key on the Touch Bar which was terrible.

They’d probably keep one model of the old style laptops for coders who want it. Like today’s Mac Pro, there wouldn’t be a lot of options and would be designed for folks that need that level of power (expensive).