iPad Pro and MacBook Stealth: are they one and the same device?

Apple as a company has always been about the elegancy and simplicity of its products. In Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs he describes in detail just how intense Jobs' focus on beautiful products was, right down to the circuit board within Apple PCs which would never be seen by the majority of customers.This obsession with beauty and excellence has become a culture in Cupertino, spawning the iPod, iPhone, MacBook range, iMac, Mac Mini, Mac Pro and iPad, and it seems set to continue with the Apple Watch, a product that stresses elegance and sophistication.Beautifully simpleUnderlying all of this was the desire for Apple products to be simple: the iPhone's interface can be used by a child or a computer programmer, and the use of a GUI in the 1984 Macintosh set a precedent for ease of use of a computer. Indeed, the Mac Pro, Apple's most complex computer, is reduced to a simple – and objectively beautiful – cylinder. Alongside this micro-trend is the macro-trend that the world is moving on from PCs to mobile devices ("post-PC" as Steve Jobs referred to it), which makes the reports of the new MacBook Air and iPad Pro even more intriguing.A recent leak from 9to5Mac has shown that Apple's next MacBook Air is going to be a radical transformation from the current line of Airs (codenamed the MacBook "Stealth"). Currently, Apple sells 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs, but the new one sits at 12-inches and is likely to be smaller and lighter than even the current 11-inch Air in terms of its chassis. Alongside the screen size change, the report indicates that Apple is also radically rethinking the ports on the Air, right down to the MagSafe connector.Obvious similaritiesWhen reading 9to5Mac's report it is hard not to draw similarities to the current iPad and, more specifically, the rumoured iPad Pro. Early reports suggest that the iPad Pro is likely to have a 12-inch screen (rumours fluctuate between 12-inch and 12.9-inch) while only having one port, as all iPads currently do, creating a strong correlation between the MacBook Stealth and the iPad Pro.It is important to note at this point that no one knows for sure what Apple is going to do – except Apple itself, and all that follows is conjecture about the company's plans. Mark Gurman, the author of the 9to5Mac report, has been largely correct in the past when it comes to Apple product and software leaks so it is more than likely that Apple is testing the MacBook Stealth in its later stages – backed up by reports from other well connected sources – but nothing is certain. Similarly, the iPad Pro has been leaked by various outlets and makes business sense for Apple, but until Tim Cook announces it on stage nothing is for sure. The correlation between the specifications of the MacBook Stealth and the iPad Pro strikes me as odd, especially as Apple is a company that likes to have a level of significant differentiation between its products, selling only a small range, each with its own niche and ability to solve certain problems.Many saw the iPad as just a "bigger iPod Touch" until the product matured and new use cases grew out of the bigger-screened tablet. Many also questioned the iPhone when it was first released, asking why anyone would want a phone without a physical keyboard and limited battery life – all of Apple's PC lines have significant differentiation focusing on different areas of the market.Releasing two products that are so closely linked makes no sense when compared to Apple's historical preference to product releases, and so it seems feasible that the MacBook Stealth and iPad Pro are one and the same.Commercially soundThe iPad Pro, as I've previously written, makes commercial sense for Apple and for the iPad range which isn't seeing as stellar growth as the iPhone, because consumers hold onto them forever. The iPad was primarily designed by Apple as a "coffee table device" that could easily be picked up and used in one hand while reading a book or a magazine.Will the iPad Pro be the next blockbuster enterprise device?Over the years, more and more apps have become available on the App Store leveraging the larger screen, while the physical form factor of the iPad has diminished in depth and weight making it ideal as a travel companion where a MacBook Pro, or even the Air, would not be. Conversely, the MacBook Air has grown more powerful and more of a laptop than the original version which featured one USB port, a smaller battery and a last generation processor (and, shockingly in 2008, no DVD drive). It wasn't until 2010 that the MacBook Air got a refresh, taking on the body it has today and receiving the stellar battery life that makes it so popular.In some ways, the 11-inch MacBook Air is like an iPad just with a keyboard. OS X has progressed so far into the territory of iOS that the two operating systems often feel interconnected – both literally, with Continuity, and metaphorically, with Launchpad and Mission Control – and this is by design. Apple's 2010 presentation was entitled "Back to Mac," and made the point of just how involved iOS and OS X were going to become over the following years, sharing features, applications and even software engineers in Cupertino. Stealth OSThere has been no word about what kind of operating system the MacBook Stealth would be running, as OS X could be too bulky, carrying features that someone on a lightweight machine just doesn't need. Full-screen apps become even more useful on smaller screens, as the iPhone and iPad have proven: people don't want to run multiple apps side-by-side on a screen that is under 13-inches, as Microsoft and Samsung have been touting, choosing instead to make the sacrifice and run one app and focus their attention on that.And these iOS apps are now focused very much on business users with many niche applications being adapted for the iPad – from Microsoft's Office to the Apple/IBM partnership – needing only the addition of a keyboard to bring them up to the level of OS X. It would seem, then, that the MacBook Stealth and iPad Pro potentially have a lot in common and that they could, in fact, be one device. Many users of the iPad now add keyboards to their devices, either via Bluetooth or a case, and this is what the MacBook Stealth does: adds a built-in keyboard to an iPad-esque form factor. Only time will tell if the two devices end up being one but Apple's focus on unification between products would suggest this could be the case.Image Credit: MacRumors

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