Apple is Working on a New Hybrid Computer with a Touchscreen. Apple would work on a new hybrid computer with a touchscreen, possibly a MacBook with ARM chips or a laptop with iOS.
The computer would belong to “a new family of devices”, and would run a derivative of iOS. That is what 9to5Mac reports that have been researching the device for several months.
Apple would have had several prototypes of the device made by its Chinese manufacturer Pegatron. It may be the first MacBook with an ARM chip.
Current Mac computers use Intel chips, but Apple would like to switch to chips with the ARM architecture. Such chips are already in iOS and developed by Apple.
More control
By also building the chips in Macs, Apple would want to become less dependent on external chip makers. It also has more control over the cooperation between hardware and software with its chip designs.
The current prototype of the assumed new device would use the same boot system as Macs.
Until now, Apple has kept the Mac strictly separate from iOS, unlike for example Windows. That system works both on traditional computers and on tablets.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said several times that iOS and macOS are purposely kept separate, to keep “the best experience on both platforms”.
Apple might want to bring its new device onto the market in 2020. Internally, the new computer would be known as ‘Star’, most likely a reference to the Xerox Star.
That was the first commercial computer with a graphical interface and a mouse.