Tim Cook Says Apple Won't Create 'Converged' Mac and iPad

[grahamtriggs]

Apple (e.g. Tim Cook) really need to stop talking about others. Just makes them sound like dicks.

Make decent products (and by the way, Android is now faster, smoother, more usable and arguably better looking than iOS 9 - and iOS 9 is less usable than iOS 8. Get over the aesthetic obsession that you've got with Ive, and get back to worrying about the experience), and then sell them on their merits.

 

[tampageek]

Tim has gone "gah-gah" over the profits from iPhone sales but should not mistake that for demand for iOS on everything. IMHO OS X is the superior OS - unless of course  continues on the path of removing features/functionality and dumbing down the system with each new version. El Crappy has neutered disk utility, crippled many useful apps, and is infested with bugs.. That doesn't exactly want to make me run out and buy a new Mac.

If  is truly serious about keeping the spirit of OS X alive, they need to come out with a kick-ass (OS X) laptop that can do it all - WITH ports and power. The new MacBook has neither. Apple doesn't need anymore niche products.

 

[Glideslope]

I want OS XI on my iPhone 9 /7.9" or no deal!!

 

[Rafterman]

Adding functionality doesn't mean a device is more functional.

You can't use a touchscreen on a computer to consistently do anything worthwhile beyond tapping a few icons. Even the three-finger drag gesture on the Apple trackpads alone is far smoother, quicker, and more accurate than you can do with a finger.

'means you can use it while standing' -- really? What do you mean by use it? You can open apps? Drag between a few things? Or work on Photoshop just using your finger? What exactly can you do on a touchscreen if it's running OS X?

So you stand there, with a Macbook balanced on one hand, while typing and trackpadding with the other? Yes, I'm sure thsat's very practical.

Think if your iPhone or iPad had no touchscreen and you had to use a keyboard and mouse with it. Its usefulness suddenly dropped dramatically.

The bottom line is, Apple doesn't have a touchscreen Mac, so people are looking for excuses why they don't need one. Just like people did with the iPad.

But once Apple does come out with one, people will go apes**t over it, telling everyone how Apple changed the industry with it. Like they did with the iPad.

Sorry, but I've seen this show before.

 

[2457282]

"We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad," said Cook.

Complete BS. Plenty of us want that.

You know there is this little wiggle room in these statements that makes it difficult. I don't want MS surface pro 4 and all the compromises it makes. I don't want android or chrome OS based hybrid either. And as I think about it I am not sure that I want OSX on my ipad. What I want is an ipad that has the horsepower to handle whatever software I need to run. I want an Ipad that allows me to interface in multiple ways (fingers, keyboards, etc). I want an ipad that can run multiple (not just 2) apps on the screen at the same time. I want apps that can do everything that I need them to do. The ipad pro so far meets all but two of my requirements. 1. it does not run multiple windows, just two. 2. the ipad apps are good, but not ready to totally replace a Mac. And when those two items are addressed, I will ask for one more thing -- a dock so I can run multiple screens. But with those things addressed what is left to do on the Mac or what is left to merge?

 

[AppleWarMachine]

Two devices for the price of one? Not on Apple's turf!

Tell that to Steve Jobs...

...it's an iPod...a mobile phone...a breakthrough internet communicator

 

[dannys1]

I agree with Tim. People are obsessed with wanting a crappy device that is a jack of all trades.

There are companies that make things that do everything (and most of it badly) that has never been Apple though.

 

[Wahlstrm]

OSX is not tuch-friendly. It´s not that Apple can't make a great/even better surface-clone, hardware wise. But OS X is not a finger friendly OS.. And to make it that you have to start from scratch or settle for the "Windows 8 experience"..

Most of us stay away from PC´s just because of the horrible OS experience.
If you just put OS X on the iPad the experience would suck almost as much as Windows does

 

[meaning-matters]

I tried that Handoff, but it's one big mess.

 

[Eidorian]

Sure, you don't want it until you make one.

 

[Precision Gem]

Macrumors is so far from representative of the average iOS or OSX user.

Very true.

After reading posts here, I assume that many many many Macrumors posters are young people who want to play games and make them selves feel important and smart by putting down the most successful company on the planet. They are always bitching about the cost of the products, which makes me think they must have low paying or no jobs. If they were so smart, they would have descent incomes, and then the price of say an Apple Pencil would be a non issue, as it is for me.

 

[J. Jizzle]

For some people. I would argue there are a lot of people using laptops for the exact same things they're now using their iPad for. Microsoft doesn't have the edge on anything. The Surface line is heading more and more back to laptop territory. How many people are actually using touch first apps on the Surface Pro or Surface Book? My guess is not many. We saw how well the Surface RT did. I predict an OS X tablet would suffer the same fate.

I've never used a Microsoft Surface, but just the idea that you can choose to use it as a tablet or a laptop sounds nice, & you still have the full operating system either way. I know this doesn't have much of anything to do with my original statement, but I still haven't embraced the whole tablet craze. I don't have an iPad. I'm still one who chooses to spec out my Mac Mini as high as possible and use it as my daily browsing of the Internet and stuff. Sure, I use my iPhone when I'm in the other room watching TV or not at my house, but it will be a long time before I ever decide to get rid of my Mac, if I ever do.

 

[Jason83]

Why would they? That's up there with a toaster-fridge.

 

[TurboPGT!]

Complete BS. Plenty of us want that.

Plenty of people that don't have the first clue what they really want, love to post this ^ BS.

 

[TurboPGT!]

This have everything to do with making more money by selling two products, and nothing to do with what people want.

You're so clever. Macs are tiny sliver of their massive profit machine. I can assure you that this is about making the two best products possible, and thusly being capable of selling people two products.

 

[citysnaps]

Complete BS. Plenty of us want that.

I would say some people might want that. Certainly not enough to get Apple's interest. For people that really want that it's quite easy to buy a Surface Pro, with its accompanying compromises.

 

[Rafterman]

Very true.

After reading posts here, I assume that many many many Macrumors posters are young people who want to play games and make them selves feel important and smart by putting down the most successful company on the planet. They are always bitching about the cost of the products, which makes me think they must have low paying or no jobs. If they were so smart, they would have descent incomes, and then the price of say an Apple Pencil would be a non issue, as it is for me.

. . .or, maybe, they believe what they say and it has nothing to do with "pulling down a company". The "I don't agree with their point of view, so they must have an ulterior motive in not agreeing with me" card is weak.

And, by the way, I DO have a good job and still b***h about the cost of things. Having money doesn't mean you want to throw it away just to say "look at how much I spent!"

 

[divideby]

I don't get the argument that Apple shouldn't build an iPad Mac hybrid because YOU wouldn't use it. There are a plenty of people that would use it, (IMO [which is based on 0% research and more of gauging my own level of desire] more than the Apple watch or iPad Pro). Don't want to use it, don't buy one.

We are using Surface Pro's at work, and it's great to share my screen and use a pen to whiteboard out problems with my teams across the globe. I would much rather use OS X though.

Here are some of my use cases:
- I want to have a full desktop experience. Just need to dock it to monitor and use BT keyboard and mouse. Full OS X experience.
- I want to sit back and read e-mails and browse the internet and read a book. Undock it from keyboard, use "mobilized" safari and Mail (which is somewhat mobile ready with gestures).
- I don't want to carry around an iPad and a Mac together. A hybrid provides the flexibility of both.

 

[keysofanxiety]

So you stand there, with a Macbook balanced on one hand, while typing and trackpadding with the other? Yes, I'm sure thsat's very practical.

Think if your iPhone or iPad had no touchscreen and you had to use a keyboard and mouse with it. Its usefulness suddenly dropped dramatically.

The bottom line is, Apple doesn't have a touchscreen Mac, so people are looking for excuses why they don't need one. Just like people did with the iPad.

But once Apple does come out with one, people will go apes**t over it, telling everyone how Apple changed the industry with it. Like they did with the iPad.

Sorry, but I've seen this show before.

You've invented a usage for the MacBook to try and undermine an argument, without actually addressing the question.

The point is that nobody will use their MacBook while standing up. You're arguing that with a touchscreen, people can now use their MacBook standing up -- but again, you still can't do anything practical with that, even in a hypothetical scenario, that the MacBook isn't even vaguely designed for at this very moment. And in humouring your hypothetical scenario, it would mean that the design of the MacBook as we currently know it will have to be changed, in order to cater for this. Which in itself opens another can of worms.

The bottom line is that Apple doesn't have a touchscreen Mac, for good reason. Answer me: what can a touchscreen Mac really do, other than meaning you can touch the screen to open an app now and then? Can you do full Photoshop work on a touchscreen, just using a touchscreen? Can you send emails on a MacBook with a touchscreen, just using the touchscreen?

I think that you're looking for excuses why Apple do need a touchscreen. You see another option for opening your app -- that instead of moving the mouse to click it, you can press it with your finger instead. That additional interface option is not a compelling reason for anybody to put in a touchscreen.

Look, I'm open ears, I really am. I'm not looking to just assert what I believe to be right. So please, what is the compelling reason for having a touchscreen? And if the answer is just 'another interface option to the user that you'd occasionally use', then that's why Apple don't feel the need to put one in.

 

[wdfly]

translation: we will willfully continue to lag behind other tablet manufacturers when it comes to replacing laptops with tablets.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

“It’s true that the difference between the X86 [personal computer] and the A-series [Apple iPad architecture] is much less than it’s ever been,” says Cook. “That said, what we’ve tried to do is to recognize that people use both iOS and Mac devices. So we’ve taken certain features and made them more seamless across the devices. So with things like Handoff we just made it really simple to work on one of our products and pick it up and work on the next product.”

I think he's setting up the next CEO to come out with a combo iMac/iPad...

 

[msh]

And plenty of us don't care about this feature too.

Maybe I'm the minority, but I do think what you do on a PC or Laptop is not something you'd do on a touch based tablet.... as well, the tablet is made for consumption with some authoring.

Let me put it this way... if my MacBook Pro screen could just come off and I could move to the couch and continue to work... I wouldn't. Nothing I do on my MacBook would I want to do on a Tablet.

Agree.

With a MBP I get a large beautiful screen attached to a physical keyboard with a wonderful trackpad and powerful CPU, GPU (well not so much), more RAM and storage and ports and OS. Only thing I can't do is touch the screen or draw on it directly with a stylus. Thats what the iPads can do, plus a bit more portable making them more suitable as remote controllers, book readers etc. Converging the two would necessarily compromise something.

 

[Fancuku]

Very true.

After reading posts here, I assume that many many many Macrumors posters are young people who want to play games and make them selves feel important and smart by putting down the most successful company on the planet. They are always bitching about the cost of the products, which makes me think they must have low paying or no jobs. If they were so smart, they would have descent incomes, and then the price of say an Apple Pencil would be a non issue, as it is for me.

Cute, very cute.

 

[Rogifan]

I've never used a Microsoft Surface, but just the idea that you can choose to use it as a tablet or a laptop sounds nice, & you still have the full operating system either way. I know this doesn't have much of anything to do with my original statement, but I still haven't embraced the whole tablet craze. I don't have an iPad. I'm still one who chooses to spec out my Mac Mini as high as possible and use it as my daily browsing of the Internet and stuff. Sure, I use my iPhone when I'm in the other room watching TV or not at my house, but it will be a long time before I ever decide to get rid of my Mac, if I ever do.

I don't own a Surface and have never used one either but I just go by Microsoft's marketing (which never shows the device without kickstand and keyboard attached) and the fact they designed the Surface Book to which they don't even call the detachable screen a tablet, they call it a clipboard. I firmly believe Apple will never turn OS X in to a touch OS. If anything they'll continue to add more functionality to iPad and leave the Mac for those use cases where the iPad could probably never replace the desktop. Last quarter Apple's revenues from the Mac were greater than iPad revenue. People should be glad Apple's not talking convergence because a converged device would most certainly be missing a lot of "pro" features or legacy baggage and would probably make "power users" upset more than anything.

 

[Rafterman]

You've invented a usage for the MacBook to try and undermine an argument, without actually addressing the question.

The point is that nobody will use their MacBook while standing up. You're arguing that with a touchscreen, people can now use their MacBook standing up -- but again, you still can't do anything practical with that, even in a hypothetical scenario, that the MacBook isn't even vaguely designed for at this very moment. And in humouring your hypothetical scenario, it would mean that the design of the MacBook as we currently know it will have to be changed, in order to cater for this. Which in itself opens another can of worms.

Microsoft already proved there is a market for tablets running full OS. And NOBODY will use it standing up? There are a ton of industries, where handheld devices are used for various reasons.

Again - the iPad was just a big iPhone that nobody will want - until everyone wanted one and Apple changed the industry with it.