Should (and will) Apple ever combine the MBA and iPad?

[sigamy]

Laptops that convert/transform into tablets have existing for a number of years. These are mostly used in vertical markets such as field sales forces, where the user spends large portion of their day with form based quick data entry and signature capture.

With Lion we are seeing Apple combine some features/functions of iOS into Mac OS X. I'm wondering if Apple would ever go this route with the hardware. While most of the current laptop/tablet convertibles are not the best designed, I think Apple could get this right.

So imagine your 11" MBA, when open it works just as it does today, runs Mac OS X and you have full traditional keyboard for heavy lifting. Then, you rotate and swivel the screen to cover the keyboard, you now have a tablet computer the machine knows you made the change and instantly switches to iOS.

Best of both worlds? Or jack of all, master of none?

 

[foiden]

An interesting analogy. Not sure if things would go that way, exactly. However, I would not be surprised if Lion is actually a first step into the idea of having a full-blown desktop/laptop OS that can be used fully with direct multi-touch as well as the traditional mouse/touchpad.

We may see newer versions of all utility Apple Software (released after Lion) that are built to be capable with both input methods. Stuff like Aperature, Final Cut, iWork, iLife.

Maybe in preparation to combine the two OSes together. Of course, this would be a plan done slowly over the next several years or so. If only so that Apple would have a project with which they try to be the first manufacturer to create a full-blown standard computer OS with complete functionality offered to just the touch-screen. But this can't happen too fast. It would have to be done step by step.

Sure, this is pure speculation, but it's definitely fueled by the Lion feature in which it almost looks like they're trying to add the ability to operate more of the OSX system in a display that looks quite useable with your fingers.

 

[Cerano]

actually dell is launching a tablet that does exactly that