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Sketchy rumor suggests Apple will converge a refrigerator and a toaster, 12.9 inch iPad will run both iOS and OS X

 

apple-ipad-mini-retina

A new rumor from Digitimes makes the bold claim that Apple is working on an ‘iPad’ (tablet device) that runs both Mac OS X and iOS. This is sourced as ‘according to rumors in the upstream supply chain’, so read with skepticism. Supply chain analysis can often be incorrect about Apple’s future software plans.

The report says that two versions of a 12.9 inch iPad are in development. One of which is the more typical larger iPad that has been rumored for a while now, but the other is a multifunction device that can run both OS X and iOS. Digitimes notes that it does not know whether both devices will actually enter mass production for public release. It indicates the larger iPad is currently headed for an early 2015 debut. Frankly, a 2-in-1 device seems unlikely.

On an earnings call from 2012, Tim Cook described Windows tablets (which have both desktop and ‘Metro tablet’ modes) as a converging of a refrigerator and toaster … a combination he claimed Apple doesn’t want to make.

And it was on that last point that Cook had a lot to say. When asked if Apple was planning to merge its tablet and laptop products, much as Microsoft is proceeding with Windows 8, Cook responded with a quip: “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those aren’t going to be pleasing to the user.”

Cook elaborated that converging the iPad with a laptop would result in tradeoffs, ones Apple isn’t willing to make. “We are not going to that party, but others might from a defensive point of view.”

Unless Apple will bring OS X to ARM, Apple would need two separate CPU architectures inside the machine to function. Moreover, OS X would require a lot of software tweaks to make it touch-optimized for a tablet. There has been no evidence so far that this is happening. On the opposite side of the coin, we have seen evidence that Apple is developing a more advanced split-screen multitasking mode for iOS, giving more weight to the fact that traditional iOS is the route Apple wants to follow with the large tablet.

Apple is expected to hold another press event on October 16th to announce new iPads, new iMacs and Yosemite but the 12.9 inch variant is not ready for this event. The large iPad is expected in the first half of 2015.

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Comments

  1. hmmm unless they intend to use the iPad with Mac wireless mouse and keyboard i dont see the point of running OS X on an iPad, even on a large iPad

    • Roger Flattin - 9 years ago

      The point could be simply this one: a future iPad (or even iPhone) can include a virtual Mac you carry with you.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        Re: “It could be a virtual Mac you carry with you.” No.

        A Mac that had an iOS emulator would be like a truck that has a scooter in the back for when you don’t need the truck.

        Your suggestion on the other hand (an iPad with a Mac inside) would be the reverse of that and thus be mostly impossible, and quite senseless even if it was possible.

    • markpetereit - 9 years ago

      I’m a videographer. OSX on an iPad would solve my biggest two pain points: external monitors that are large enough to pull focus are heavy and bulky, and transferring/converting video files is a pain. If I could mount 12″ iPads to my cameras and use them as a preview monitor while they record 1080p native ProRes video, I’d buy 3 of them TODAY!

      • PMZanetti - 9 years ago

        I think you ought to be asking the manufacturer of your (no doubt overpriced) video cameras to provide you with a better view finder.

        I’m not sure which idea sounds more ridiculous: Mac OS X on an iPad….or mounting 12″ iPads to your cameras.

      • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 9 years ago

        Most entry level DSLR’s and pretty much all mid to high end dedicated video cameras already support external monitors via hotshoe mounts or HDMI out (then just clamp them on with some kind of rig). That’s a far more cost effective and practical solution than taping an iPad to it.

  2. Roger Flattin - 9 years ago

    If I don’t see Apple bring a product akin to Windows 8 to market with a confusing mix of desktop and tablet user interface. It’s conceivable to imagine something more understandable from an end user perspective, like this one:

    The iPad boot a version of iOS like usual. You activate Bluetooth and connect your mouse or magic trackpad. On the SpringBoard, among the applications, there is a Mac application which launch a combo of finder/dock/menubar and your desktop environment. Your can access the Mac application private Document folder through the finder and your iCloud Drive datas. You have a Mac App store.

    Everything is running in 64 bits on A7/A8/A9 on a version of AppKit.

    Using this, you can connect to your work for remote desktop sessions (remote sessions are currently difficult to handle on an iPad with the lack of a pointing device). One can imagine accessing other ressources as well: Microsoft network, printers, etc…

    For MacOS X, it would mean a huge increase of market.

    It would not encomber much the classic usage of iOS.

    Shortcuts can be imagine to bring you back to your desktop with the move of the mouse.

    With today fast Wifi networks, the screen can even be broadcast to a future AppleTV in high resolution (AirPlay).

  3. Kaspar Schmid - 9 years ago

    Please don’t quote Digitimes!

    But the thing is, Digitimes isn’t just wrong some of the time. When it comes to the big Apple stories, it’s wrong most of the time. Sometimes wildly so. It’s reported that its sources had said that Apple was going to release MacBooks with AMD processors, iMacs with touch screens, iPhones with built-in projectors and iPads with OLED displays. Those products, and others mentioned in Digitimes articles, never showed up.

    Source: TheMacalope

  4. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    The iPad RT. Apple isn’t that stupid and the A8 isn’t fast enough to run OS X.

    • Roger Flattin - 9 years ago

      iOS is already OS X minus some Frameworks. There is no doubt that a subversion of OS X can run on A7/A8/A9 processors. It more have to do with usage and ergonomy. The boundary between the tablet usage and desktop usage must be obvious and we defined for the user.

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        You want Apple to push a Windows 8 type split personality on OS X? Ballmer got booted after that and Cook likes his job.

        Apple’s idea is to keep data compatible between platforms, not the OS. That’s what Microsoft didn’t figure out. The data and the apps are important, not an OS that runs on everything from a phone to a desktop.

  5. smigit - 9 years ago

    Not. A. Chance.

  6. puri517 - 9 years ago

    PEOPLE, please remember: OS X will never will be run by Apple on touch screens without changes, because OS X interface was created for mouse cursor inputs, not your bold fingers.

    • Roger Flattin - 9 years ago

      OS X on a touch screen is iOS. The goal won’t be to operate OS X with the touch but to operate the desktop oriented OS X with a pointing device (trackpad/virtual trackpad/mouse) for desktop like tasks. And in parallel be able to operate iOS with the touch like before.

    • markpetereit - 9 years ago

      Just look at all the convergence that’s already happened. Storyboards and autolayout — two iOS design staples — are now available for OSX app development. 64-bit processors in the portable devices. The Metal graphics subsystem. New continuity features in iOS8 and Yosemite for seamlessly handing off between the two. Yosemite’s flatter, iOS-inspired design cues. And obviously, LaunchPad. EVERYTHING is pointing toward OS convergence.

      That Microsoft has so badly mangled the experience is not a death knell of OS convergence, it’s the invitation for Apple to do what Apple does best — take a great idea, poorly implemented, and show the world how to do it RIGHT.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        No offence, but I think you have everything entirely backwards. The reason Metal, Continuity, etc. exist is precisely because the two OS’s are never going to merge. Both OS’s have their own versions of the same programs and apps as well.

        To have a device that runs both, and thus requires dual versions of all your apps, hardware requirements that are only needed for one OS or the other etc.would be sheer madness. It doesn’t work, and very few people actually want or need the capability.

        It’s difficult, not cost effective, not energy efficient, not space efficient and something that Apple’s customers are not asking for. Why on earth would they do this?

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        No one wants a Surface Pro version of a iPad/Macbook Air hybrid. A heavy tablet coupled with an underpowered, misshapen laptop. It’ll only happen if Steve Ballmer replaces Tim Cook as CEO of Apple. It’s bad enough that Jony Ive has so much say over software design.

  7. airmanchairman - 9 years ago

    This says more about the power of the 64-bit ARM CPU’s they’re going to be trotting out in the near future, and the certainty that Apple will respond sooner or later to the Surface 3 Pro’s much-trumpeted productivity vis a vis Office apps.

    When this rumour is combined with the upcoming Enterprise app collaboration with IBM, pro geeks will be salivating at the prospect of what is to come!

    • airmanchairman - 9 years ago

      Add Bootcamp, Parallels or VMWare, and VST Audio plugins to the equation, and drool some more…

  8. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    What if the hybrid device is the next MacBook Air?

    Apple will release an an ARM machine that runs OS X. The question will it be on a 12.9″ iPad, a MacBook Air or some hybrid device. The question isn’t if Apple will release a device that runs either both iOS and OS X or device that runs iOS, but has a mode that mimics OS X.

    With the Contuinty feature Apple has many different ways it can go. They can make a tablet that docks into a keyboard and mirrors what’s on your Mac or use it as a edition screen for your Mac and many options for Apple TV.

    I think we will see such a device in February or March.

    • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

      Swift and Contuinty were big hints on Apple making a hybrid device. Both give Apple plenty of options on how it can go about ultraportables.

      With Intel’s botched release of Broadwell, it would be stupid for Apple not to try its hand with 64bit ARM Macs or a hybrid device. For people that say ARM chips can’t run or don’t have the power to run OS X all you need is 4 GB of ram. Apple might try 2 GB, but it would be under powered.

      • Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

        No. In terms of “ultraportables” (a PC/Micrsoft term), they already make the two leading types of ultraportables in the market (iPad and iPhone) and are sweeping the floor with them. There is no market there that Apple is ignoring or not playing in. This market simply doesn’t exist. If it did, the Surface would be popular. It is not.

  9. pbufs - 9 years ago

    I’ve been thinking a 12-13″ iPad could replace the display in a MacBook Air ala ASUS Transformer. It would use the previously rumored landscape dock (or Lightning) connector. The iPad with have an A9 processor, and the keyboard base would have an Intel CPU. While docked, the iPad is just a display for the MacBook Air and undocked it would be a regular iPad. Continuity would allow seamless transitions between the docked and undocked modes. There would be batteries in both and while docked, the keyboard base battery would be used first, then switching to the iPad battery. Optionally, the iPad battery could be charged from the keyboard base battery. I’m not sure about the Apple logo though. Maybe it could rotate somehow mechanically or optically. If not, I’m not sure if it would be fixed in landscape or portrait.

  10. patstar5 - 9 years ago

    Interesting…. I love my dell venue 11 pro 2 in 1 windows tablet. I would love for apple to make something like that. If I could put windows on it too, then I would have 3 os on one device

  11. Jeff Colvin (@jeffcolv) - 9 years ago

    I doubt this. Unless we can expect to see a massive overhaul in OSX after Yosemite, then OSX would be a terrible experience on a touch screen device.

    Even if Apple were working on something like this, I don’t think we would see it any time soon.

    • My Thoughts (@_8978) - 9 years ago

      The point is that OS X isn’t on the touch screen, it’s OS X when the keyboard is attached, and you use the trackpad. It’s touch based iOS when the keyboard is removed. Continuity bridges the two when switching between one and the other, and an updated iCloud drive (or your choice of updated storage Extension) would ensure files would be in sync.

      All these things are in today’s iOS and Yosemite.

      • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 9 years ago

        Exactly, they’re there, so why combine the two and make a Windows 8 that does both poorly? The best things about iOS and OS X is they’re dedicated to the way they work and that’s that. If you try to combine them like they did with Windows 8 you’ll end up with a convoluted mess that will do nothing but confuse and annoy most users.

  12. varera (@real_varera) - 9 years ago

    Oh, bollocks…

  13. Drew (@gettysburg11s) - 9 years ago

    Total BS. Digitimes must be smoking the good stuff.

  14. rafterman11 - 9 years ago

    A 12 inch iPad running iOS? Not interested. A 12 inch OSX tablet? Suddenly, my interest peaks significantly.

  15. If this is correct, it will literally be the very first time that Digitimes has published a rumor that panned out.

    So don’t hold you breath.

  16. It will be in Apples best interest to create a tablet that runs IOS and OSX. If you watched Adobe’s Keynote yesterday and it’s new collaboration with Microsoft and it’s SurfacePro3 the answer why is there. Timecode 1:52:25 http://max.adobe.com/sessions/max-online/

  17. Michael Wagoner - 9 years ago

    I’ve been seriously looking at the Dell XPS 18 but I don’t want to go back down the Windows path. I would love to see Apple compete with a product like this. I’d love a new iMac to replace my aging 2006 model, but I’d like to have the flexibility of a tablet and the power of a desktop combined.

  18. Matt P. (@mateus109) - 9 years ago

    Surely a 12″ iPad running OSX is not an iPad but a 12″ MacBook with touch screen and removable keyboard?

    • spiralynth - 9 years ago

      I think it’d be a refrigeroaster. And I would love one. Oh, yes I would.

      • spiralynth - 9 years ago

        Come to think of it, I think I might fancy a toasterator as well.

  19. repentantgamer - 9 years ago

    Digitimes – making palm reading look reliable since 1998.

  20. PMZanetti - 9 years ago

    Its not happening, because there is not point. iOS is the touch version of OS X. End of story.

    • RP - 9 years ago

      You are huffing and puffing too much about this. Reminds me of Apple will never release a phablet.
      The obvious truth is Apple would be foolish not to want to use their own A series arm chips on all of their devices when it becomes feasible. Remember ios is OSX.

      • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 9 years ago

        I don’t imagine it’ll ever be feasible. This idea supposes Intel will just give up developing their CPU’s so ARM at some point surpass them. It won’t happen. Intel will continue to make even more power efficient and better performing chips that will always be orders of magnitude more capable than ARM chips.

        OS X requires desktop chips because it runs desktop software. ARM doesn’t have the power or the instruction sets to deal with this. Good luck finding an ARM chip as powerful as the Xeons in the Mac Pro. Hell, even the mobile i7’s found in the MacBook Pro’s and Air crap all over even the best ARM chips.

        ARM is perfect for things like phones and iPads. It doesn’t and won’t ever have the power to reliably run something like OS X and its software catalogue. Apple’s future “Macs” will run iOS, not OS X. iOS will simply improve along with the hardware and they’ll just shake the legacy desktop stuff off and let it rest, but that will take a long time yet. It makes NO sense having a single model of Mac running ARM while letting the rest of the line up run Intel with their orders of magnitude more computing power. People complained about the newer cheaper, less powerful iMac being so hilariously underpowered, yet that thing runs rings about even an A8.

      • RP - 9 years ago

        Intel is still stuck with x86, their cash flow is dependent on that slowly closing purse. So yeah Intel will not sit still, but can their x86 chips keep them afloat when for the most part the consumer computer market and their customers are now on arm?
        And for the time being an iPad running osx need not have to compete with a Xeon lol, just run OSX better than the Surface pro

  21. arroyomuchacho - 9 years ago

    Any Apple product such as this can appeal to a certain demographic group. The question is would it be profitable?

  22. PMZanetti - 9 years ago

    I suppose it IS possible for a device, a really powerful device, to run BOTH, and not a convergence of the two. I just don’t know of anyone would want it.

    I can see how it would work, and undoubtedly there would be people on the internet that get upset that it doesn’t work the way they (think they) want it to.

    A 12″ device, when Docked with a keyboard/trackpad case/stand of some kind, displays and runs Mac OS X. As soon as you undock that device from the keyboard, OS X goes away and iOS becomes all you can use. I see absolutely NO touch input on the OS X side.

    It would have to work this way to make any sense….but the internet people would be furious when they couldn’t use OS X with touch input.

    • WaveMedia (@WaveMedia) - 9 years ago

      Or do as we currently do. If you want OS X, get a MacBook/iMac/Mac Pro/mini. If you want iOS, get an iPad/iPhone/iPod touch. It seems pretty pointless limiting it that way based on what’s plugged in, you’re better off just having one of each at that point.

  23. RP - 9 years ago

    When SJ introduced the original iPhone he said the “iPhone runs OSX”
    So in a way, it already runs on arm. I honestly think the only way they can rationalize the bigger iPad would be to take the first step towards moving OSX towards it’s own chips. It may be a while before Apple arm chips reach parity with Intel ones for the MBA’s but you gotta start the process somewhere and the sooner the better.

  24. Steve Grenier - 9 years ago

    Perhaps the new larger iPad can act as a secondary display? (without the horrible lag of AirPlay) That would be a nice feature.

  25. Hammond Cheeseborough - 9 years ago

    The headline should read: DIGITIMES PULLS RIDICULOUS RUMOR OUT OF ITS BUTT AND WE’RE WASTING YOUR TIME BY WRITING AN ARTICLE ABOUT IT. This sounds like a geek device. Since the geek to normal human being ratio shalt never cross paths, Apple will NEVER make such a device. If they create a 12.9 inch iPad, it will run iOS and the iPads will do the same resolution tricks that we see the 6 and 6 plus doing. It will be a joy to use and I will buy one. However, it will NOT I repeat NOT run OS X. I’d bet my reproductive organ on it.

  26. Harvey Lubin - 9 years ago

    It is not totally impossible. Apple would need to create an ARM version of OS X (the 64-bit A8 processor has enough power to run it and apps smoothly), and that ARM version of OS X would need to be scalable (so that the interface is more useable on a 12.9″ screen using multi-touch.

    Although OS X is very useable on the 11.6″ and 13″ MacBook Airs, we use multitouch on the trackpad, not directly on the screen. The interface elements would need to be slightly more touch-friendly on an iPad.

    The benefits:

    – iOS and apps use less power, so with the much larger battery that would fit a 12.9″ iPad, iOS could run days on a full charge.

    – OS X is more battery hungry than iOS, but ARM processors use MUCH less power than Intel processors in MacBooks, so we should also see huge gains in OS X battery life.

    – We don’t need to run OS X very often if most functions can be handled in iOS, but OS X applications that you already are using on your home Mac could be installed and used on the iPad.

    – Booting into OS X has the additional benefit of being multi-user, so admin and general user accounts can be used for different users.

  27. Since the screen is so large, I would imagine Apple would use AirPlay to stream OS X to the iPad from a Mac.

  28. leifashley - 9 years ago

    All depends in how it’s done. I think it would be foolish for them to put out BOTH iOS and OS X for iPad. However migrating to OS X for iPad that looks and functions like iOS would be cool.

    For me, I could use Xcode on iPad to build apps. Well, I can dream anyway… lol

  29. TfT_02 (@TfT_02) - 9 years ago

    What a bunch of bollocks..

    They would never do this, the whole point of iOS is that its for mobile devices.

  30. If the do this seamlessly it could work (I stress the if). I the user has to make decisions on what mode to run in or what apps to download, etc… it will be an epic fail like Windows 8 RT.

    Remember that iOS is actually OS X lite so it’s not a huge stretch to believe something like this is possible but the question is can it be done in a way that doesn’t confuse or annoy the average user.

  31. Brian Voll - 9 years ago

    As much as I’d love an Apple alternative to the Surface Pro, this rumor seems pretty unlikely.
    (Yes, I know you can install OS X on a Surface Pro 1 and 2; it actually works surprisingly well once everything’s set up)

  32. Oflife - 9 years ago

    Our toaster is literally just to the left of the fridge where we keep our (German rye) bread in a container inside the fridge.

    To toast it (lovely jubbly with humous or honey!), we:

    1. Open fridge door (letting warm air in/cool air out)
    2. Open container containing bread
    3. Extract bread from container
    4. Close fridge door
    5. Pop bread into the (English style) toaster to the left of the fridge
    6. Set toasting timer dial
    7. Push down slider on toaster
    8. Wait for the pingpop!

    What if like those cold water dispensing American style fridges, the bread was contained in a receptacle in the fridge door and on demand the bread slid into a toaster mechanism built into the front of the fridge!

    1. Turn toasting timer dial on fridge door
    2. Press start button
    3. Wait for the pingpop!

    Such a time and energy saver!

    #iOSnOSX #together #harmony

    ;)

  33. oscar2267 - 9 years ago

    So running full OS X it’ll be like a Surface 3. I guess Microsoft will have to redo their Surface vs MacBook commercials.

  34. Mr. Grey (@mister_grey) - 9 years ago

    It’s definitely possible that Apple’s new 12″ MacBook Air could be an ARM device, but it won’t run iOS. IN other words it’s possibly and even somewhat likely that Apple will come out with a 12″ iPad and a 12″ MacBook, that use similar ARM based fanless tech, but they would be different products.

  35. I would imagine that somewhere in Apple there actually IS a tablet that runs OSX, but that doesn’t mean it has an impending release. A larger (longer – “Long time coming”) iPad might be in the works, bumping the aspect ratio to 16:10.

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Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.