No iPad/MacBook Hybrid From Apple, Says Tim Cook

Bad news for Apple users who are attracted to the idea of Microsoft's new Surface Book — a laptop with a detachable tablet-display — and hoping the Cupertino company would release something of their own one day: it's going to be a very long wait. Just a few days after Tim Cook had some unflattering things to say about the Surface Book, the Apple CEO stated that they have no plans to develop an iPad and MacBook hybrid device.

For several years now, there have been on-and-off rumors about Apple combining an iPad with a MacBook. These usually run alongside the rumor of the Mac's OS X and iOS eventually converging into one. However, in an interview with Independent.ie, Cook indicated that combining a laptop and a tablet results in compromises for both devices.

"We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad," says Cook. "Because what that would wind up doing, or what we're worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants. So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either. You'd begin to compromise in different ways."

Last week, Cook said that the Surface Book was a "diluted" product, as it tries hard to be both a laptop and a tablet, but in turn "succeeds at being neither." In the interview with Independent.ie, he makes mention that many Apple customers rely on both iOS and Mac devices, so their strategy is to use features such as Handoff to allow users to seamlessly transfer from one product to another.

SOURCE Independent.ie