Will Apple finally take a step that it has so far refused to cross? Will he venture on a third way between Mac and iPad, adopting a form factor close to that of a Mac, but where touch is king? According to Mark Gurman, the answer is yes, even if the new machine is not about to arrive.
According to the journalist Bloomberg and its newsletter, power-on, Tim Cook’s teams are currently working on a hybrid machine, a cross between an iPad and a MacBook. This information is in line with an announcement made by Ross Young, analyst specializing in the production chain of screen tiles. It indicated last week that Apple would plan to develop a device with a large folding screen.
Mark Gurman therefore brings a little more body to this hypothesis. He indicates that the hybrid machine would carry a double screen, around twenty inches. It could either offer a keyboard or be equipped with neither a physical keyboard nor a touchpad. This would then imply that the touch screen will also be used for input. In the past, Apple filed various patents that explained how a touch surface could provide haptic feedback to simulate the typing comfort of a real keyboard.
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If the journalist Bloomberg specifies that the machine would be in development for two years already, Apple would not be the first to explore this kind of devices. Lenovo already fills this niche with its ThinkPad X1 Fold, for example. Nevertheless, the device is far from perfect, and it is easy to imagine a few points on which Apple’s expertise could bring improvements.
The question would obviously be to know which operating system would drive this hybrid machine. Microsoft opted for a hybrid OS a long time ago, but for now Apple has always maintained a clear distinction between macOS and iPadOS, even if the difference increasingly boils down to ergonomic questions – central ones however.
However, Mark Gurman does not see this new device being marketed before 2026, if it ever is. Suffice to say that Apple’s operating systems still have time to evolve, or to get closer.
Source: power-on