The future MacBook to be an iPad Pro

[Yoms]

Recent rumours suggest that Apple will use its own ARM-based chips for its future Mac lineup. This and the lack of significant MacBook updates made me think. What if the first Mac to use an ARM-based chip is the next MacBook? What if this next MacBook is basically an 12-inch iPad Pro from a technical specifications?

It makes sense to me. The form factor of 12-inch iPad Pro and MacBook is pretty close. The MacBook could use the same battery, the same LCD, the same CPU and GPU of the 12-inch iPad Pro.

It would be the same machine, but one offering a touch + pen experience on iOS and another offering a computer experience on macOS.

That would make the MacBook quite a compelling machine while allowing Apple to cut down on R&D by developing once for both the 12-inch iPad Pro and the MacBook.

What do you think?

 

[Steve121178]

I think Apple needs to stop gimping the iPad by making it behave like a giant iPhone. iOS on iPad is a disastrous mess that's holding the excellent hardware back.

Maybe Apple will take the reins off iOS 13 and allow the iPad to actually show what it can really do and behave more like the PC replacement Apple keeps telling us that it is.

 

[Tech198]

Recent rumours suggest that Apple will use its own ARM-based chips for its future Mac lineup. This and the lack of significant MacBook updates made me think. What if the first Mac to use an ARM-based chip is the next MacBook? What if this next MacBook is basically an 12-inch iPad Pro from a technical specifications?

It makes sense to me. The form factor of 12-inch iPad Pro and MacBook is pretty close. The MacBook could use the same battery, the same LCD, the same CPU and GPU of the 12-inch iPad Pro.

It would be the same machine, but one offering a touch + pen experience on iOS and another offering a computer experience on macOS.

That would make the MacBook quite a compelling machine while allowing Apple to cut down on R&D by developing once for both the 12-inch iPad Pro and the MacBook.

What do you think?

As much as Apple keeps throwing a curve ball into the wind, with "convergence' (i.e they have split screen on iPad, the dock as well on iPad Pro, it IS a close call.. With the added "one app for all" with developers, they keep throwing in eggs, for a company that keeps denying stuff..

However, Apple's said many time they don't want a pen (stylus), and was always against touch screens. However the 2-in-1's from Dell look pretty good.

It won't make me switch, as i'm all Apple, and to me, is not a good reason. Apple is really the only company that doesn't do Touch displays yet, even though they keep" "hinting" this moving forward.

Apple's on the wrong side. They should be winning, not loosing to the bigger target...

 

[theluggage]

What if this next MacBook is basically an 12-inch iPad Pro from a technical specifications?

I admit that my first reaction to the latest iPads is “wake me up when they run MacOS”. They would need a version of the keyboard cover with a trackpad, though (a basic trackpad wouldn’t be rocket science but something as good as the MacBook trackpad might be) because MacOS UIs would be too fiddly for fingers and having to keep grabbing a Pencil just to operate buttons would be a pain.

If Apple are going to switch to ARM, a MacOS iPad might be a good start as it could be pitched as an improved iPad rather than a Mac with (initially) reduced functionality (transitioning Mac apps to ARM should be easier than some people make out but will take time, and while it’s promising that the A12X is even shooting in the same ballpark as the MBPs it is probably not the chip for anything above an Air ).

 

[theluggage]

However, Apple's said many time they don't want a pen (stylus), and was always against touch screens. However the 2-in-1's from Dell look pretty good.

The actual problem is not having a pen and/or touch screen but relying on a pen and/or touch screen. When Steve Jobs ridiculed the idea of a stylus, other mobile devices had fiddly toothpick styli which were essential because the on-screen keyboards and buttons were so small (plus, cheap resistive touchscreens). The Pencil is mainly about painting and handwriting tasks where it is better than a mouse/trackpad. Likewise, the "gorilla arms" issue with touchscreens is only a problem if you're continually having to reach out to the screen to tap buttons (which is what you get on an iPad in a keyboard cover). Occasionally taking your hands off the keyboard to manipulate something on the screen when it makes sense is another matter. Touch-screens are becoming

I think Apple's policy of "never shall iOS and MacOS be merged" makes sense when you're thinking of handheld devices (iPhones and low-end 'media consumption' iPads) vs. laptops and desktops, because it encourages developers to custom-design apps for those modes of use. Once you start pushing iPad Pros as a sit-down laptop/desktop replacement, though, there's a limited 'niche' of uses where having a touchscreen/stylus trumps having a keyboard/pointer, so a 2-in-1 with distinct 'handheld' and 'desktop' modes starts to make more sense. Microsoft's problem is that it doesn't have Apple's huge base of 'handheld' Apps.

The "one-app-fpr-all" approach might be great if it means that Mac users get a load of Apps that would otherwise only get made for the huge iPhone user base, but I suspect that it will still be a lot of work to produce a complex App which can take full advantage of both iOS and MacOS devices.

On a theoretical ARM-based Mac with a touchscreen, I wonder if it would be possible to have MacOS and iOS 'containers' - Docker/BSD-jail/Windows Linux Subsystem style (i.e. there's only one OS kernel running, more efficient than full virtualisation, but some applications see an iOS environment and others see a MacOS environment). A user would see separate desktop 'spaces' for iOS and MacOS.

 

[Yoms]

As regards me, I never thought of an ARM-based Mac with a touchscreen. I only thought about sharing the hardware between iPad Pro and MacBook. But both will co-exist to server different user experience.