A week ago Microsoft announced and showed the world the Surface Book, the company’s first laptop that can transform into a tablet. With the amount of attention, the device is getting, one might expect Apple to follow in the same way it followed Microsoft with its iPad Pro. Well, from what Apple itself had to say, this is not happening, and might never happen, ever.
We remember when Tim Cook stated in the past that combining two different products doesn’t lead to an enjoyable user experience. Still, it is getting there so we’re not certain if Tim Cook will still be correct a few years or months from now.
On the matter of what Apple thinks of the idea of creating a device similar to the Surface Book, executive Phil Schiller stated that multi-touch displays have no place on a traditional laptop and that Apple see no reason to go this route. Basically what he’s saying is, a tablet must always be separate from a laptop.
“From the ergonomic standpoint we have studied this pretty extensively and we believe that on a desktop scenario where you have a fixed keyboard, having to reach up to do touch interfaces is uncomfortable. iOS from its start has been designed as a multi-touch experience — you don’t have the things you have in a mouse-driven interface, like a cursor to move around, or teeny little ‘close’ boxes that you can’t hit with your finger. The Mac OS has been designed from day one for an indirect pointing mechanism. These two worlds are different on purpose, and that’s a good thing — we can optimize around the best experience for each and not try to mesh them together into a least-common-denominator experience.”
Not too long ago Apple released the iPad Pro, a direct copy of the Surface Pro line of devices. What’s interesting about this is the fact that Apple had shunned the idea of ever supporting a pen for its tablet range, but as we have seen, this thinking has been thrown out the door.
Should the Surface Book begin the sell like gangbusters, we believe Apple might decide to change its tune.
