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Report Claims 12.9-Inch iPad May Adopt Integrated iOS/OS X Operating System

I'll sum it up--Ubuntu Phone Concept

Whoever perfects the Ubuntu phone concept is going to be the next Apple. It might well be Apple itself, but they are too greedy. If they had cut the price of the 5c by $100, they would own the smartphone market worldwide. But Apple is on its way, because there is something new available on a 6s keyboard. Cursor arrows. A 12" iPad with a good keyboard would take care of 95% of my computer needs.

You can't see this from the USA, but in countries like Ecuador where I live, there is no money for both a smartphone and for a computer. The Ubuntu phone simply docks into a laptop or a keyboard and monitor, (or even a tablet) and becomes your computer. The phone becomes the trackpad for the computer. There is one hell of a market for a device like this in countries with little smartphone penetration, and sometimes even less computer ownership. The G-8 countries are saturated with electronics. The growth for the industry is outside these countries. And they are not interested in $700 smartphones and $600 computers. Or $100+ operating systems. And they don't give a damn about thinner. Thats actually a problem. There are a billion people out there waiting for a device like this.

People in the USA don't get this with their desire to have the best and latest and thinnest and lightest. I have yet to find a retail store in the USA where I can walk in and test drive linux on a device on the retail floor. Not so in the rest of the world, every major PC maker is selling computers with linux installed, but they are not carried on their USA websites. What the rest of the world wants is something that just works, and is affordable. The A8 ARM chip has more than enough power to drive this for second and third world needs. The A7 was labeled desktop class. Intel wants the world to use their $280 chip. The cost of an ARM processor, around $20. Of the top 20 best selling laptops on Amazon, 16 of them are less than $350. Do you see where this is going?
 
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Jaynamo said:
Thought 'someone' said that their competitors were "confused". Image
I call BS on this iPad Surface Pro.....
Click to expand...

Your lack of imsgination here is shocking. Such a device woild be nothing like a Surface Pro. I can imagine seversl avenues for Apple to pursue here too, none of them a Surface Pro.

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Soulstorm said:
Not going to happen. This would require a new OS version, which would frustrate devs, as iOS 8 adoption was less than straightforward for them. Not to mention that Apple has already been pushing Yosemite and iOS so much that it would make no sense to fragment the entire ecosystem with another OS.
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It doesn't have to be another OS here. First off come to grips with the idea that iOS is basically Mac OS with a different UI and a different scheduler. No imagine Mac OS running iPad apps natively in a window instesd of full screen. That is just one possible approach for Apple.
 
Apple will make a bigger higher resolution iPad and still stuff only 1GB of ram in it and expect their users to accept website refreshing on any thing more than 1 tab open.

😱
 
zedsdead said:
Apple has an iPad problem. I never said it has to be as big as iPhone. Tablet sales are stagnating for several reasons. One of them is people do not feel the need to upgrade them because new features are not needed. I have seen this both with myself and family.

Also, the tablet has taken a huge hit in primary education. It started out as almost the holy grail, but as schools tried to use it people have realized it is not ready for productivity. It can be used for certain tasks, but in general a laptop is better. The cost of an iPad is still high compared to Chrombooks. I work in education and see this within my school district. Let's not forgot the disaster of LA schools. If Apple wants to get serious, they need to make educational software and services and do it soon.

As phones increase in size, people are also less in need of tablets. I personally am seeing this in the family also, with someone dumping the iPad mini/iPhone 5s for just the iPhone 6+.

I love the iPad; its a great device. But the integration between iOS and OSX is no where near as good as Apple leads people to believe, especially for serious work.

I DO NOT want a merged OS. If they create a 12" version that runs iOS when on its own, and boot into OSX when attacked to a keyboard/trackpad, that could be cool. A merger will only lead to a water-ed down OSX rather than a beefed up iOS. We have seen how Apple merges those two with iWork and such, and the OSX features always get the short end of the stick.
Click to expand...
To say Apple has an iPad problem implies sales should be higher. That simply isn't the case. Tablets are a very niche usage case. Squeezed between phones and ultrabooks they are only the best tool for certain jobs. That they sell as well as they do is fantastic. Trying to desperately make them more competitive with phones and PCs would do nothing but weaken them at the few things they do well (Google Microsoft for details).

As for chrome books, Apple doesn't bother with cheap low-margin junk. If that's what education wants so be it. If someone is willing to use garbage like that with a smile there is no way you'll ever convince them to buy an Apple-priced product. Apple is looking for markets where you can make money.
 
Mashurrab said:
This I might buy. Full blown Mac air when you need a computer. And a large screen detachable from the base, when you want an iPad but each is running its appropriate OS.
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Sounds awesome huh. Launchpad on OSX is almost there as a gateway between the two systems. You'd use your iOS system via Launchpad on OSX. 😎
 
I'd take pen optimized osXi with included pressure sensitive pen anytime. It's time for Apple to grow out of fingerpaints...
 
rp2011 said:
"If" true, I'm inclined to believe its a device that can SWITCH between iOS and an arm version of OSX when paired with a keyboard.
Click to expand...
Why the obsession with switching. Run iOS apps in a window just like XCode does.
iOS on a 13" device when paired to keyboard would be kinda silly. And Apple would be foolish not to want to start priming OSX for their own arm chips to when they could gain parity with Intel for inclusion in their MBP's. Its only a matter of time.
Click to expand...
Silly for whom? I could see schools loving such a platform.
Does anyone really think Apple is limiting their chip design work to phones and tablets only?
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That isnt easy to answer. From my perspective they would be crazy not to leverage ARM for a lower cost notebook. By the way low cost does not equal low quality. Depending upon the performance Apple can realize you could see >$250 saved in chip costs.
Apple is far too ambitious for any of you to believe that.
Click to expand...

For whatever reason Intel has been dragged kicking and screaming into mobile. All of their efforts so far have been underwhelming so yeah Apple needs to watch out for number one.

Beyond that ive mentioned several times in various places that silicon is the new PCB. That is value added engineering now takes place on the SoC nit the PCB So in a sense Apple has no choice because Intel seems to be reluctant to do custom.
 
Dual OS Tablet?

I'm not going to opine whether -this- device will be "dual-OS". However, if one understands that iOS and OSX are, at their core, identical, then one might see how possible this really is. All Apple needs to do is have some sort of docking device (hardware keyboard, mouse for example) that triggers the appearance of a cursor and the disappearance of the on-screen keyboard. iOS app icons retreat and OSX app icons appear.

Technically, I don't see this as being out of the question. Maybe a emulation environment permits OSX apps to run on an A8/A9 chip; I don't see an Intel chip in one of these beasties. Marketing-wise, I'll not even predict this machine's existence. Personally, I am not exceedingly fond of a tablet interface for any sort of productivity apps. Do note I am not speaking for anyone else; you might use Pages, Keynote and maybe other iOS apps on your iPad and be perfectly happy.

But, as I wrote earlier, I'm just thinking about this in an 'is it possible?" manner. I think it's less a matter of impossibility and more a matter of "why would we want to compromise in a way that produces something whose whole is less than the sum of its parts?" And isn't that the essence of the Surface?
 
fullauto said:
Sounds awesome huh. Launchpad on OSX is almost there as a gateway between the two systems. You'd use your iOS system via Launchpad on OSX. 😎
Click to expand...

Actually what I meant is that they should be 2 separate systems. The Mac is great to produce things. You have a keyboard and mouse pad and those can help a lot in creating documents, excel sheets or work on video editing, but most of the time I read on the Internet, watch videos and send some light emails which is a thing that you can do from anywhere from your media consumption device which is the iPad.

Having these 2 distinct devices packaged in the same shell will make it much easier to choose which one to use for the right moment. 😎
 
mcalevy said:
There is one hell of a market for a device like this in countries with little smartphone penetration, and sometimes even less computer ownership. The G-8 countries are saturated with electronics. The growth for the industry is outside these countries. And they are not interested in $700 smartphones and $600 computers. Or $100+ operating systems. And they don't give a damn about thinner. Thats actually a problem. There are a billion people out there waiting for a device like this.
Click to expand...

Really doubt it. My guess is people living in those countries would much rather have a cheap reliable smartphone that works well and if needed will get a separate low-cost notebook. A docking system reduces the reliability of the hardware and because you still need a keyboard and a monitor, doesn't really save you much cost If anything it may ends up costing more at the end altogether.

Modular computer systems sound good on paper but in reality they add too much complexity, do not cost less, are cumbersome to use, and aren't as powerful as a standalone notebook or a desktop would be. Just look at the phones and computers introduced in the past that included some kind of docking concept. At best they were niche products.
 
Agree big time but...

zedsdead said:
Apple has an iPad problem. I never said it has to be as big as iPhone. Tablet sales are stagnating for several reasons. One of them is people do not feel the need to upgrade them because new features are not needed. I have seen this both with myself and family.

Also, the tablet has taken a huge hit in primary education. It started out as almost the holy grail, but as schools tried to use it people have realized it is not ready for productivity. It can be used for certain tasks, but in general a laptop is better. The cost of an iPad is still high compared to Chrombooks. I work in education and see this within my school district. Let's not forgot the disaster of LA schools. If Apple wants to get serious, they need to make educational software and services and do it soon.

As phones increase in size, people are also less in need of tablets. I personally am seeing this in the family also, with someone dumping the iPad mini/iPhone 5s for just the iPhone 6+.

I love the iPad; its a great device. But the integration between iOS and OSX is no where near as good as Apple leads people to believe, especially for serious work.

I DO NOT want a merged OS. If they create a 12" version that runs iOS when on its own, and boot into OSX when attacked to a keyboard/trackpad, that could be cool. A merger will only lead to a water-ed down OSX rather than a beefed up iOS. We have seen how Apple merges those two with iWork and such, and the OSX features always get the short end of the stick.
Click to expand...

Has anyone thought that this may not be an iPad but simply a touch enabled MacBook Air and there will never be an iPad 12.9? Yosemite is basically the new framework for the hybrid OS required for this.
 
Highly Possible

I believe this is a high possibility, considering that when steve jobs said Tablets are Post PC devices, the media said its an over statement, but now when we look at this yrs PC shipments vs Tablets or Phones we know it indeed became true.

So going in the classic steve style the future is leading to upto a general purpose tablet that could replace almost all use cases for a laptop a.k.a "The Post PC Device".

Now how would you make such a device without an actual hybrid OS that runs your Photoshop or Text Editor etc ... and can become the right device at the right time.

May be it could become your ultimate device:

* A gaming Machine when hooked to TV or Apple TV
* A laptop when you you need a serious editing or prograamming.
* A Tablet for all other use cases.

Apple has a tendency to create Products that compete with its own products line and thus creating a evolution/revolution. This kills there own products but eventually creating a much more sophisticated product for the consumers.

Thus i believe this rumour could actually be true.
 
Handoff between osx & ios is very nice feature for users, but WHAT IF Apple is also doing it for a product?
How nice it would be that 12" ipad and 12" mba is the same product? Detach display from keyboard and it behaves like ios device with touch screen ui and when attached to keyboard, it behaves like any other mac with osx and no touch ui...
 
pankajdoharey said:
I believe this is a high possibility, considering that when steve jobs said Tablets are Post PC devices, the media said its an over statement, but now when we look at this yrs PC shipments vs Tablets or Phones we know it indeed became true.
Click to expand...

I think tablets have stalled and PC shipments actually grew.

Tablets were more of a fad than a replacement for PCs. If more of them ship with an actual desktop OS, then we might be onto something.
 
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