Niels Jørgen Kruse (njk.delete@this.trustme.dk) on September 23, 2013 11:09 am wrote:
> Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar) on September 23, 2013 10:03 am wrote:
> > But even if they could do this, it is questionable what
> > the benefit would be. Yes, it would let them pocket
> > some money that now goes into Intel's pocket, but the Air
> > could no longer run Windows apps, and performance on
> > OS X applications without an ARM port would be pretty crappy.
>
> I think it more likely that Apple would add a new keyboard+pointer interface API to IOS.
>
> Watch out for a 13" iPad with a keyboard+trackpad case.


Because the Surface Pro has done so well? I think designing a product that makes a poor laptop and an expensive tablet was never a good idea, and I don't believe that Apple will follow Microsoft down that particular rathole. Apple is virtually certain to make a larger iPhone, even though they've poo-poohed the idea in the past. The market has spoken, and many people want bigger phones. The market has also spoken on tablets that try to be laptops and vice versa, and it is not something very many people want.

Apple already has a perfectly good desktop OS, from which parts of iOS were derived (especially at the lower levels) Adding an OS X GUI to it as an 'app' that starts up when you 'dock' it to a monitor/keyboard/mouse would not be unduly difficult. If done right, it would allow a properly written 64 bit OS X app the ability to run in an iOS device's OS GUI environment after a simple checkbox click and recompile (and yeah, some testing, but if the job is done right the testing doesn't find anything)

This would allow leveraging Apple's large iOS user base to enlarge the OS X user base, as well as offering a reason for people to choose an iPhone over an Android phone. They'd be able to steal a lot of the 'casual' PC users who could use their iPhone as their only "PC". Obviously Android could do this as well, but there is little commercial software available for the Linux home user (i.e. stuff like Turbotax) so Apple would have some advantage in that respect that could provide an impetus for Android -> iOS migrations in a maturing smartphone market.