I wonder if the rumour about the 12.9 inch iPad might not be the whole story, or even the correct story. There is a good chance the rumor is correct. However, here are a few possibilities I thought up of what Apple could do. Maybe this is more wishful thinking on my own part. Ideas that have been going on in my mind of what could happen next with iOS, tablets, laptops, and mobile computers.
As I mentioned in an earlier article, I think it's possible that smaller 8 and 7 inch tablets could become much more popular. If that happens, 10 inch and larger tablets could fall out of favour. Or more likely, the role of the laptop and tablet could change for some people, and merge into a single device. So, what are some other options of what the 12.9 inch iPad rumour could really be? And what are some options that Apple could consider in the future for the design of iPads, MacBooks, and other portable computers.
1. A New iPad With Built-in Keyboard. iBook?
Could it be possible that Apple has seen how popular keyboard accessories are for the iPad? Maybe they feel an extra accessory is a poor experience and they could offer a larger "iPad" which is actually a laptop? What I'm saying is this would not be either an iPad or a convertible tablet. It would simply be a laptop form factor with a keyboard that cannot be disconnected. A 13 inch laptop with a keyboard that runs iOS. It could be superlight. It would have crazy battery life. If they kept the same resolution it would still have a PPI of 200, which isn't perfect but is still much higher than laptops. They could even bring back the old name of the "iBook".
Separately, what if even though a keyboard was attached you could still stand the computer on its side to put it in portrait. You could swivel the keyboard backward and behind the device so it stands up with the display facing you. The keyboard would be at the rear of the device and turned off. You could kind of lay it in your lap in portrait mode too. Maybe it would allow the full yoga form factor where you can also swivel it all the way around. Though I bet Apple might not do that unless they had a second LCD where the keyboard normally is so it doesn't feel weird holding it with the keys facing out. I wouldn't expect an LCD keyboard/touchpad with better predictive text input at this point yet.
2. A MacBook Air With Retina Display
So Apple is making a 12.9 inch iPad and people assume it must be true. Maybe it's as simple as that. However, what if it is "just" the next version of the MacBook Air with a retina display. Both changing the display size to make it a little smaller than the 13.3 inch version, and offering only one display size could be a possibility instead of the 11 inch version. Maybe a bit of bigger redesign and some new features is also possible. I'm not sure if the MacBook Air ever really had a big redesign since it was introduced in 2008.
3. A MacBook Air With Touch Screen
Many people would say this is very unlikely and I suppose it is. However, I still think it's very possible that touch screens will come to all laptop and mobile computers. Yes, it's uncomfortable to reach out and touch a desktop monitor like Windows 8 tried to get you to do. But reaching to touch a laptop screen that is on your lap or just above it on a desk makes sense.
4. A Macbook With A New Touch Centric OS X
What if Apple does like the idea of using touch on laptops but not on desktops? How would they make this happen without the poor experience of just slapping a touch screen on top of regular desktop Mac OS X? One option could be to slightly change Mac OS X to make a laptop version that is touch centric. They could allow regular Mac OS X applications to still run on these new touch screen MacBooks. But a new UI specification would be created for laptop applications kind of like how iOS for iPad was slightly different from the UI of the iPhone. Eventually developers would write to this new UI type and all desktop OS X applications would be written in it. This would be a way of making Mac OS X able to support touch on laptops without adding support for a touch screen to iMacs and Mac displays, while improving the UI of Mac OS X to be more touch friendly and like iOS.
5. A Macbook With OS X On ARM
Not that all of these aren't unlikely, but this guess is probably very unlikely this early on. It will happen at sometime probably though. The title pretty much says it all. My guess is Apple will probably port and release Mac OS X on ARM now that ARM is 64 bit. If and when that happens it will be a big deal, like when they switched from Power PC to Intel. So that announcement would really be the important one and would possibly supersede the announcement of a 12.9 Macbook with OS X on ARM.
6. A MacBook Air With Both OS X And iOS On ARM
Even crazier, they could have the next version of the MacBook Air run both OS X and iOS. In this case, the new MacBook Air would obviously have a touch screen. A button on the keyboard or a gesture could switch between OS X and iOS. Maybe tilting the screen back to a certain degree could switch it to iOS. And maybe like in my first guess you could stand the device on its side and when you turn it beyond 180 degrees to this portrait mode it automatically switches to iOS mode.
Conclusion
So the rumour was a 12.9 inch iPad, possibly with a 4K resolution. But I have found that people often take some of these rumours as being all or nothing. Sometimes a rumour has been possibly right about something but missing the exact result. These are some possible guesses I had of things Apple could possibly do that involve a 12.9 inch screen. All these are just guesses and thoughts but the rumour of a 12.9 inch made me think of these. Wouldn't it be cool if I somehow guessed the way they go with any of these?
Rumor: Apple considering 12.9-inch iPads with 2K and 4K resolutions for 2014 launch