Perhaps everyone did not expect that in the first quarter of 2022, Apple successfully surpassed Lenovo to become the world's largest manufacturer in the PC market with an 18.8% market share. Reading this report, I can't help but wonder, even if the popularity of Mac series products in the past two years is much higher than in previous years, it is unlikely to surpass Windows devices. However, careful netizens soon found the hint of this report, and found that the statistical agency Canalys also counted the tablet into the statistics when counting, that is to say, Apple won the championship in the PC market not because the Mac sold too well, but because the iPad was good enough.
As for why the iPad can win the sales champion of the tablet market for many years, there is not much interpretation here, but just recently, foreign media Patently Apple found that Apple applied for a new patent for the iPad, which can be seen in the patent picture that this is an iPad with a base, and the overall design style is very similar to Microsoft's Surface Book.
The base station has a detachable keyboard with "electromechanical keys", a trackpad and a coupling mechanism that enables different positions, such as tent mode, laptop mode, canvas mode, etc. The hinge in the base may also display short information, contain a camera, microphone or projector, and serve as an Apple Pencil stand. The emergence of this patent may mean that the new form of the iPad will also meet with us in recent years.
In fact, it can be seen from the patent diagram that rather than saying that this is an iPad with a multi-functional keyboard, it is better to directly call it a two-in-one device, which is also one of the more mainstream notebook products on the market. But looking back and thinking about it, is it really possible for Apple, which has taken conservatism as its main strategy in recent years, to launch such a two-in-one notebook?
What Microsoft can't do, Apple can do?
In addition, there is another interesting point in the patent diagram, that is, this iPad is not equipped with the iPad OS that we are familiar with, but MacOS. Looking at this familiar operation mode and design, I can't help but think of Microsoft's Surface series products, the same to take into account the daily entertainment and mobile production of the two major needs of the goal, the same special product form to attract or lead the development of the entire market.
But as a result, we all know that although the Surface series has brought a lot of highlights in terms of form development, when it comes to sales, its performance is quite general, and most of the people who really buy it are the enterprise market, and ordinary consumers are not interested in such products at all. For various reasons, it has not successfully led the development of the notebook and tablet market, and it has not done a good job in many details such as user experience.
There are still a small number of manufacturers on the market today that will launch a two-in-one device similar to surface, but they have not been able to successfully solve their biggest pain point, that is, ecological interoperability. But in the Windows camp, chip, system, and software developers are scattered, they have their own purposes and interests, and it seems unrealistic to want the three to work together to create a new ecosystem.
For Apple, which is known for its perfect ecology, two-in-one devices are not difficult, after all, Apple is very smooth on the road of "All in ARM", because of the accumulation of several generations of A-series chips, as well as the operating system under the unified architecture and a huge developer camp, so Apple can announce that its Mac will be converted to the ARM platform overnight. Therefore, Apple's two-in-one device experience will at least be better than the Surface, such as MacOS with a better desktop experience when connecting to the official keyboard or external display, disconnecting and reverting to iPadOS that is more suitable for mobile experience, with clear logic and intuitive.
And the advent of Apple's two-in-one notebook is likely to greatly improve the current situation of the two-in-one notebook market. After all, today's two-in-one notebook attraction is not as high as traditional laptops and tablets, according to the research agency Statcounter data, from 2012 to 2021, the protagonist of the worldwide tablet market is still iOS and Android, equipped with Windows tablet / two-in-one tablet has been in the "lying flat" stage, the market share is only 0.03%.
After all, the positioning of the two-in-one notebook is mainly based on mobile office, even in the case of not playing large games, purely as a productivity tool, for some users who need to modify large images, their requirements for computer performance are still relatively high. However, most of the two-in-one technology on the market today is still flawed and at best useful. Therefore, when the budget is tight, consumers engaged in this kind of work will be more willing to buy an ordinary notebook + a good pen tablet with the budget of buying a two-in-one notebook, or a well-configured PC + pen tablet + general notebook.
The high price and poor use experience make the two-in-one notebook in the market after more than a decade of launch has not been very hot, and in terms of hardware and software adaptation are perfect Apple, may be able to surpass Microsoft and other manufacturers that have been deeply involved in the field for many years and become another market leader.
Is Apple going to make a 2-in-1 device? Cook was the first not to say yes
See here, it is estimated that many readers will have expectations for Apple's two-in-one device, but I have to pour a basin of cold water on everyone here, not to mention that the probability of apple's patent application is not high, just from the development of the iPad in the past two years, we can understand that Apple is unlikely to launch a two-in-one device, at least not in these two years.
When the 2021 iPad Pro uses the M1 chip, more and more consumers on the market will think that the iPad will definitely use MacOS in the future, so that the tablet is no longer a tablet, and the laptop is about to usher in a new era of development (to a more lightweight direction). But at the WWDC of the same year, Apple poured us a basin of cold water, not only did not mention any news about the iPad will use MacOS in the whole conference, but also launched a new generation of iPad OS, which also indicates that in the next few years, Apple will not integrate the two product lines of iPad and MacBook.
Assuming that the iPad Pro uses MacOS, although this is a good thing for the iPad, it may also be sold and word-of-mouth, but there will still be a certain impact or even overlapping positioning for the MacBook, especially the Air series.
On this point, Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of global marketing, said in an interview in 2021 that Apple currently has no intention of integrating the iPad and MacBook product lines, both products have their own advantages and work scenarios, and both will exist independently for a long time to come.
From the current product positioning, the iPad is still only a production aid, it can not independently undertake the heavy productivity task, even if it has used the M1 processor, mini LED screen and up to 2TB of memory. Using the iPad as the second screen of the Mac, or letting it handle some of the light work in the early stage when it is inconvenient to carry the Mac, is the more accurate positioning of the iPad. The same is true for two-in-one notebooks, which will even directly affect the sales and positioning of the two product lines.
In fact, from Apple's point of view, you can also understand that in the end, Apple is still a company, why only make one in the case of making two shares of money? The same is true for two-in-one devices, and Apple has no reason to cut off its own financial path.
For me as a consumer, if Apple is really willing to launch a two-in-one notebook, it would be better, at least I can spend less money when I change notebooks and tablets later, but from Apple's point of view, even in the case of software and hardware are allowed, using a two-in-one notebook to replace the iPad and MacBook is not an optimal choice, as for why, I believe I don't need to say more.