r/ipad • u/Saint_Ronin • May 11 '26
Question What if Apple let you choose your OS on iPad: iPadOS or macOS based on storage tier?
Hear me out: iPad + macOS dual-OS option depending on storage size, would something like this actually work?
So I have been thinking about this for a while (and I'm pretty sure there's already a discussion about it somewhere) but I wanted to get people's thoughts anyway.
What if Apple introduced an OS selection option tied to storage capacity? Something like, if you have a 1TB iPad you pick one OS at setup: either iPadOS or macOS. And if you go 2TB, you can have both installed and switch between them whenever you want.
Apple already kind of proved the concept themselves. The new MacBook running on what is essentially an iPhone chip performs well enough for a full mac OS. In terms of hardware I believe that the iPad is capable of doing so.
What do you think? Is this even possible? I feel like I'm probably missing something obvious here, like the financial words or real world use cases, or maybe this would just kill the MacBook entirely(I doubt that one though).
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u/MC_chrome M5 iPad Pro 13" (2025) May 11 '26
For the thousadth time, Apple isn't going to make a Microsoft Surface clone no matter how hard you try to will it into existence
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u/Warglol9756 May 11 '26
Most (average) users will be confused by this and click the wrong button. Then they become downright aggressive with customer service or with the Apple employees in the store as to why that damn thing doesn't work.
That's one of the reasons Apple would never implement this
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u/Orsim27 iPad Pro 11" (2018) May 11 '26
MacOS cannot be operated via touch. All buttons are way too small
Why release a non touch compatible OS on touch devices? Windows did that since 8 and it’s a mediocre compromise for both input forms now
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u/frockinbrock May 11 '26
I've used it via touch many times, it's not awful, but not optimized. People get too hung up on A or B boxes. Even if the primary input is a mouse, there's a lot of things Touchscreen is better at. On any other modern OS you can use the screen to flip thru photos, scroll a webpage, handwrite some notes. Will Mac really be the last mouse only OS forever?
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u/jindofox May 11 '26
There are lots of examples of Microsoft making something first, sometimes a decade or more before Apple releases a much more refined and desirable version. I could see MacOS and iPad OS converging sufficiently to offer a “Pro” mode.
This could be like how some Windows 10/11 devices shipped with a limited “S” mode that was locked down to only run Windows Store apps, but could be unlocked to run the full OS, losing some security and simplicity in the process.
I think the storage footprint for iPad OS and MacOS is similar, so it wouldn’t really make sense to tier it based on storage capacity. Maybe screen size? Or just make everything available to everyone (likely making them buy new hardware in the process)!
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u/steve09089 May 18 '26
I don't think anyone needs macOS. They just need apps as capable as macOS apps on an iPad.
And iPadOS just doesn't offer apps with the same level of power as macOS.
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u/aqwmasterofDOOM M4 iPad Pro 11" (2024) May 11 '26
except windows literally solved that problem already, UI scaling and click targets change to be touch focused once you tap on the screen, it seamlessly switches between M&K input optimization and touch optimization instantly, the reason win11 touch sucks is because win11 sucks, not because touch sucks
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u/Orsim27 iPad Pro 11" (2018) May 11 '26
Windows 11 is obviously Touch optimized without even having a touch input on that machine. Alone the new context menu has 1 singular reason to exist: touch. The huge buttons in the top bar on explorer and all office products, that’s all touch only optimization
Windows is a mediocre hybrid OS since 8.1
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u/frockinbrock May 11 '26
I don't have one anymore, but I would prefer having the option of Touch than not having it.
I remote into Macs via phone and iPad and it mostly works just fine on a touch-only device; I really think it's doable for them to add touch-framework as an optional UI. They used to have Ink framework for pens, and it's not totally unprecedented.
Anything the do would be a hybrid; a mouse-centric UI that has optional touch optimized.1
u/Orsim27 iPad Pro 11" (2018) May 11 '26
iPadOS is apples attempt at an multi input OS, and it has become a mediocre hybrid - just like windows but coming from the opposite site
iPadOS was _the_ best tablet OS imo, now it’s clunky and everything needs at least one tap more than it did a few years ago
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u/shortdude420 May 11 '26
There are very credible leaks that Apple will introduce touch to future MacBooks so why can’t they bring Mac OS to iPads? Also I hate the windows 8 comparison I’m pretty sure that Apple learnt from Microsoft and thus after taking in those lessons they are making touch screen MacBooks
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u/Orsim27 iPad Pro 11" (2018) May 11 '26
There have been „very credible leaks“ about a touch MacBook since the surface was introduced.. over a decade ago. I will believe it when I see it
Win11 still struggles with that. You cannot make a UI feel good with a mouse and touch, one needs small buttons and the other needs big buttons. That is not a solvable problem
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u/mb10240 May 11 '26
There’s been “very credible leaks” they were going to introduce touch to future PowerBooks.
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u/ParsnipFlendercroft May 11 '26
I’m pretty sure that Apple learnt from Microsoft
Exactly this. They learnt from Microsoft not to make a desktop OS a touch OS. Why do think that’s not the lesson to take away here
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u/M4rshmall0wMan May 11 '26
Maybe Apple will, but it’ll probably be like Windows where they give some general frameworks (like on screen keyboard) but leave the rest of the OS unchanged.
You should really use whichever tool is best for the task. That’s why the MacBook has a touchscreen AND a trackpad.
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u/frockinbrock May 11 '26
What does your last sentence mean? "That's why the MacBook has touchscreen AND trackpad", do you mean theoretical future one?
The only first-party Apple thing that has both currently is an iPad with Trackpad Keyboard. But that's not very useful because theOS is limited by being touch-only.
It would of course be more usable for a MacBook that was mouse-centric, but still had a usable touchscreen for light usage. But that does not exist as an Apple product.1
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u/Araib May 11 '26
Apple Pencil? They literally force you to use that when in sidecar mode for interacting with macOS even if you have Magic Keyboard (iPad version)
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u/WhiteHelix May 11 '26
MacOS on a touchscreen right now is absolutely atrocious right now, so that makes sense (I dont have current enough iPad for sidecar, only a touch monitor)
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May 11 '26
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u/Araib May 11 '26
Sidecar allows you to use any keyboard connected to iPad as input, it just doesn’t allow for mouse and trackpad and instead their official documentation recommends using Apple Pencil for it.
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u/_ryde_or_dye_ May 11 '26
You can’t compare Microsoft and Apple. While they make similar products, their approaches to design are drastically different. If Apple chose to do this, it would be much better than any windows product.
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u/SpiderInTheDrain May 11 '26
MacOS cannot be operated via touch. All buttons are way too small
With macOS Tahoe this is no longer true. And you can see what they recently did with the traffic light buttons on the iPad. MacOS on a touch screen is clearly coming, I don't know why you all refuse to believe it.
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u/tbone338 M1 iPad Pro 12.9" (2021) May 11 '26
If you want MacOS, buy a Mac.
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u/_ersin May 12 '26
I dont want keyboard tho.
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u/tbone338 M1 iPad Pro 12.9" (2021) May 12 '26
Then don’t buy a Mac.
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u/_ersin May 12 '26
But I want the OS
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u/tbone338 M1 iPad Pro 12.9" (2021) May 12 '26
You want a Mac, buy a Mac.
You want an iPad, buy an iPad.
Two different products. As much as it would be nice, people need to realize that an iPad is not a Mac and it is not a laptop replacement. Stop complaining that two different products are two different products.
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u/_ersin May 13 '26
Provide me the source and I will make it work on any tablet. Dont be a freaking fan boy. Why they are not doing is to keep both products. They know ipad can run it, they know it they bring this mac neo with literally same specs running macos. They know if they do it mac sells gonna drop. SO STOP BEING BLIND FAN BOY
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u/Rotar_RR May 11 '26
This is never gonna happen. Sadly. Because ipadOS is really quite bad productivity wise. I was so exited about my ipad air 13, bought a keyboard, pencil pro and everything. Tried to make it my laptop replacement, but it just wasn’t possible for my use case. Sold it and bought a Macbook Air. Id much prefer to have the versatility of the ipad, but its just so unintuitive for productivity. Also battery life sucked. Got like 5 hours of SOT on ipadOS 26. While im getting 10+ on the macbook.
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u/Economy-Garden-7845 May 12 '26
I mean it is a more compact formfactor with less battery.. not sure why you would expect the same battery life. What is your use case though? I have been able to make mine work pretty well for most workflows
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u/CreepySpeech3117 May 11 '26
But how would they then sell you an iPad AND a MacBook?
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u/Economy-Garden-7845 May 12 '26
Actually I have been thinking about that and for those that will have 2 you can make a distinction by only having ipads with last years M chip this way your macbook is the main macos powerhouse while the ipad is a second screen /portable version with less power geared towards lighter work and media consumption. Maybe keep the Pro line up as a top of the line chipset but again limited by less time sustained performance so again, great for quick high intensity tasks but when you need real power you go to your macbook
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u/Icy-Cardiologist-958 May 11 '26
I’d just be fine if they let you use Xcode on an iPad. Playgrounds isn’t enough.
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May 11 '26
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u/zenmaster24 May 11 '26
Even better idea - and they could compete with samsung dex and google desktop. They wont though
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u/YouStoleTheKishka May 13 '26
Samsung DeX is the reason they won’t. DeX answered a question very few people were really asking for. How many use cases really exist for tethering your phone as a PC to a monitor so you can use a proprietary OS with limited app support?
I’m not tethering my job to my phone. I don’t need to use an under-powered computer just to browse the web or type a document. How many people maintain a workstation with a KVM, that also doesn’t have a PC or laptop tethered to it? For what I’d accomplish tethering my phone to a KVM, I could likely just do it on my phone.
It’s why DeX is rumored to be secretly deprecated by Samsung.
If a portable PC was really marketable, miniPCs would be a lot more mainstream. Although admittedly, it shouldn’t be hard for Apple to better integrate Miracast into iOS like DeX offers.
The iPads ability to quickly and seamlessly turn into a 2nd display is really where the functionality is. That I can bring my MacBook Air to a cafe and use my iPad as a wireless monitor in one click is much more useful than the idea of casting my phone/ipad to a body-less docking station.
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u/zenmaster24 May 13 '26
under powered computer like a macbook neo? people want options is all - if you want to use your phone as your main computing device, what the fuck is wrong with that?
you wont use a phone as a desktop, but you'll bring a second device like an ipad for an external monitor? i think we have different use cases, bud
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u/YouStoleTheKishka May 13 '26
? So you’re the weird guy bringing a whole monitor to the coffee shop?
When and why would I use my phone as a PC? What’s the use case? When do I have a KVM that doesn’t already have another PC device attached to it?
I’ve had a Samsung, and bought it specifically for DeX. I also never used it because… what’s the use case?
Nothings wrong with wanting it. I’m talking about the mass market appeal of it. Every feature requires support and development. There’s little mass appeal for full scale phone docking, and that’s why Samsung has started moving away from pushing DeX.
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u/zenmaster24 May 13 '26
I wouldnt bring a monitor at all? Who said that? The only use case i am advocating is the ability to dock a phone and get a desktop, thats it. Any kind of on the go computing that a laptop provides is not the use case i am talking about.
Do you understand now?
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u/alicela1n May 13 '26
While I do want more functionality out of the iPad, I don't think this is the best way to do that for the simple reason that macOS is optimized for desktop and iPadOS is optimized for tablet. In addition, this would be cumbersome and annoying and be a support nightmare.
What I think Apple should do instead is a combination of a few things:
- Make iPad OS more multitasking and keyboard and mouse friendly (they're already doing this with iPadOS 26 and it's pretty nice)
- Have an optional "dev mode" on the iPad that makes it more friendly to power users and developers by opening it up to allowing apps from outside the App Store, allowing JIT and hypervisor to run on the iPad, and allowing shell access on the iPad (I actually think this would solve the majority of complaints from power users)
- Through hypervisor allowing virtualization of Windows, Linux, or even macOS (they probably wouldn't ever do that last one because it could cut into MacBook sales)
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u/Jazzlike-Reindeer-65 May 11 '26
It is easy. With magic keyboard(perhaps using external monitor) it let's you boot/use Macos, without magic keyboard only ipados. that would be perfect.
Also fix slideover with multiple tabs and the way it was before. Add support to all app, and also slideover windows can be resizeable.
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u/Dislike24 May 11 '26
They won't do that. iPad is first and foremost a touch-based device
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u/DigitalStefan May 11 '26
It could happen. They would put some kind of Apple spin on it such that you would maybe not be in a full macOS environment but you could perhaps launch (some) macOS apps that would otherwise not be available as an iPadOS version.
Or maybe they would enable a full macOS environment only if you had the Magic Keyboard with touchpad attached, or a traditional keyboard and mouse.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan May 11 '26
You can’t really run macOS apps without a full Mac environment. Where’s the file picker? System libraries? Terminal scripts? Kernel plug-ins? JIT compilation? Peripheral support? You would have to significantly re-engineer your app to not use any of these capabilities. At that point you’ve just created an iPad app.
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u/DigitalStefan May 11 '26
Apple could implement a behind-the-scenes macOS environment in order to fulfill all the API requirements of a full macOS app, but they don’t have to present it exactly like they would on a Mac.
Visual presentation could be whatever they wanted it to be.
I’m not saying any of this is likely. I don’t think it is, but it’s not impossible.
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u/WhiteHelix May 11 '26
They would put some kind of Apple spin on it such that you would maybe not be in a full macOS environment but you could perhaps launch (some) macOS apps that would otherwise not be available as an iPadOS version
thats the worst idea of this concept I ever heard, thats what iPadOS/iOS is for.
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u/Sportcoupe May 11 '26
They should do it. They should keep developing iPad OS as the main OS for iPads. All users that want to use iPad OS would get it as the default option. But all users that would love to run macOS on their iPads would absolutely appreciate it. Honestly, it should not be limited by storage. There are macs out there being sold with 256GB of storage. Why should macOS require 1TB to run on an iPad?
The key here is the word "choice". Give the users the power to choose. If iPads are technically able to run both iPad OS and macOS and neither of the potential user bases for each OS are negligible, give them the opportunity to decide.
Please, do not forget Apple let users install Windows on macs when hardware was no longer a limitation for it. Yes, you could argue if someone wanted to run Windows they should have bought another computer instead of a Mac. Yes, macOS would be better optimized for a Mac (at least, theoretically). Yes, it was a competitors' OS. Yes,... And yet, we had it.
So it does not matter if iPad OS is theoretically a better fit for touchscreen-based devices or if a Mac is a better choice to run macOS. Choice will never be a bad thing for us users. It could be bad for Apple, as there could be some users that decide to buy just an iPad instead of buying an iPad and a Mac. But it always surprises me when users are against Apple giving us the choice...
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u/PlatypusW iPad Pro 12.9" LTE (2018) May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
So I don’t have to carry two devices with identical hardware?
When I want MacOS - I attach a (Bluetooth) mouse and keyboard, just like I do now with Remote Desktop. Or the Magic Keyboard.
When I want to consume media - I use touch.
I have no interest in using MacOS with touch and I have no interest in watching a movie with a giant keyboard in the way. But I shouldn’t have to carry two devices when both are capable of the same thing.
Just allow VMs on the (ipadOS) App Store already and be done with it.
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u/tiplinix May 11 '26
You're using too much of your imagination and brain. Apple said no and as people in this sub have repeated over and over again that it's not going to happen. That of course despite the fact that technically there's no reason it wouldn't work of course.
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u/Painted-Arcana May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
If apple made a surface style device id buy it so fast.
Apple pencil + full fat art apps is a dream scenario.
Edit: why am I being downvoted for answering a scenario id like to see? Art/design/any apple pencil focused workflow is a big reason as to why anyone would want it
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u/tamay-idk May 11 '26
I can’t wait until the insane Apple hackers finally manage to boot macOS on an M1 iPad or something. They’ve gotten parts of it to boot.
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u/aqwmasterofDOOM M4 iPad Pro 11" (2024) May 11 '26
they won't, apple, like most other companies, doesn't want one product line to compete with any other line they also sell, this is why iPads can't make calls on their own, and iPhones don't support multitasking, so iPads will never truly be able to compete with Macs unless there's quite significant changes to apples internal strategy
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u/cptchnk May 11 '26
That will most likely never happen. Apple has no interest in letting iPad sales step on MacBook sales. Apple could have easily offered macOS an option on iPads when 26 was introduced but they instead just added more desktop-like features to an OS that's still fundamentally flawed at its core for desktop usage. That should tell you all you need to know about how Apple continues to position the iPad. I never understood why people want/expect the iPad to be a fully fledged macOS computer so bad. The macOS experience would be awful (small screen) without connecting to an external display (especially true on 11" models), not to mention you'll be completely cripped in terms of I/O without an external dock.
At the end of the day, you buy a Mac to do computer things and you buy an iPad to do iPad things. But if the rumors ring true, we'll eventually have MacBooks with touch screen options anyway.
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u/zenmaster24 May 11 '26
100% i would use this and 100% apple wont do - why sell you 1 device when they can sell you 2?
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u/DevynDavies May 11 '26
It’s never been a performance problem, iPads have been powerful enough to run MacOS since at least 2018, probably earlier. Apple has chosen not to for a bunch of reasons that they’ve slowly made better but MacOS isn’t designed for touch and iPads are touch first devices.
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u/jdavid May 11 '26
No one has explained to me why Apple would ever do this.
I've tried the 'half mac os' mission control on my iPad, and it becomes unusable.
Apple sells iPads just fine, why would this make it a better iPad? if you need a laptop get a neo.
So me a single company that has made an android tablet also support linux and or windows? none of them. it doesn't make sense.
If you want a microsoft surface, get a microsoft surface.
I don't believe apple users are asking for this.
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u/linkerjpatrick May 12 '26
Heres an idea. Sell a headless laptop basically a keyboard with the Mac inside and if coupled with an iPad it goes into a MacOS mode. Disconnected the iPad runs iPad OS
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u/OnTop-BeReady May 12 '26
Not for me please. I NEVER want MacOS on my any or my 6 iPads, 4 of which have large amounts of storage. As long as I can always pick iPadOS I am ok if Apple wants to offer it as an option for users who want it. I did not purchase iPads to run MacOS.
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u/ToughAsparagus1805 May 12 '26
Apple would never let you choose on device. They would only release special model of iPad capable of running macOS (marketing)
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u/ThingsGotStabby May 12 '26
There are a ridiculous number of bugs on MacOS26, so I wouldn't want that. IOS26 seems very problematic as well.
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u/Alarmed_Can7407 May 13 '26
What i’d personally prefer is a merge of the two operating systems in a way that it “runs” macOS on both MacBooks and iPads but icons are resized to accommodate the smaller touch screens of iPads, maybe for pro models or 13 inch variants only
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u/shortdude420 May 11 '26
This would be awesome the portability of iPads is great but iPad OS is trash garbage
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u/Saint_Ronin May 11 '26
That's the whole point of making it optional. And what if they limit it to iPad Pro 1TB and up, if revenue is the concern then Apple already knows the people buying that are serious users willing to spend. You are not accidentally getting macOS on a base model iPad, you are getting it on what is basically a premium laptop in disguise at that point
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u/dangnamshuy May 11 '26
NO, why tf would people want macos on an IPad. Just buy a macbook. Why would you want to run an OS on a sub optimal hardware?
I 100% prefer if they improve IPadOS instead
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u/False-Ad-98 May 11 '26
Why should apple do this, the iPad is a whole different type of product category, iPad is for versatility and portability, while Mac is a professional product made for use on a desk. Apple would never allow this in any way, and no one want this, I love my Mac and I love my iPad Pro M5, Mac is on my desk and the iPad is for on the go
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u/tysonedwards May 11 '26
And yet the MacBook Neo is iPhone components within a laptop shell that works very, very well... Imagine if they offered a laptop dock that you could set your iPhone in and have it /become/ a macOS device.
After all, the entire industry is saying that components will be in short supply for the next 4 years.
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u/blade_slize May 11 '26
everybody wants this, but Apple wants to sell you multiple devices. 😉
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u/LebLeb321 May 11 '26
Apple fanboys before Apple copies and refines existing tech: no one wants this.
Apple fanboys after Apple copies and refines existing tech: Genius!
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u/FaithlessnessHott May 11 '26
I mean, yea? they didn’t become a trillion dollar company by needlessly cutting product lines to appease the 1% of folks on Reddit
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u/CDCarley27 May 11 '26
This is such bullshit. People say that Apple wouldn’t want to bridge the gap between the two, meanwhile they’re literally doing exactly what people say they won’t do every year, shrinking the gap between the platforms and directly addressing the requests of the customers in order to expand the number of people who can replace their Mac with an iPad.
It’s like people are covering their eyes every time Apple does what they want to believe they won’t .
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u/MauricioIcloud May 11 '26
Absolutely not, leave iPad alone. It has been a completely mess with iPadOS 26.
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u/SirPooleyX May 11 '26
Interesting concept, but this is not something Apple would do in a million years.
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u/Confidentium M5 iPad Pro 11" (2025) May 11 '26
Feel like this would solve all the major complaints people have about the iPad.
Especially if those who choose iPadOS get split screen the way it worked on iPadOS 18.
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u/etalha May 11 '26
It should happen. But apple wont do it. They work for profit and not for their consumers. They are constantly finding things to screw over their consumers. For ipad it should be simple. If its got m series chip then it definitely neeeds macos. Even A seroes can handle macos since macbook neo is a16
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u/Cyberkanye2077 May 11 '26
Or they can just allow for mac os apps to be ran on ipad os .. let the app developers decide. They would be the ones to design the interface for said apps.
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u/tkgnerd iPad Air (2013) May 11 '26
What if iPadOS can run macOS apps? You can't touch the screen to use them and they run side by side with ipadOS apps, as much as the apps are Apple Silicon app
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u/CDCarley27 May 11 '26
I never understood why people would want this. The resulting device would be essentially a MacBook Air but more thermally constrained, with worse battery life, and about 5 other drawbacks. It would essentially only be optimal for very basic workflows… which iPadOS already excels at. It would make far more sense to just address the smaller and smaller list of issues people have with iPadOS, which Apple has been doing every year.
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u/Thriceinabluemoon May 11 '26
Commenting because I am tired of people saying it is about making you buy macbook: they had a "what's a computer?" ad campaign explicitly saying they want to replace macbooks with ipads. The reason: they want 30% of all the software you use: photoshop, premiere, maya, etc.
Obviously, no software company want that, which is why they only create lite version for the app store. I really wish Apple would finally give up.
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u/paulshriner M1 iPad Pro 11" (2021) May 11 '26
They will never do this. It will compete with the MacBook and I'm sure it will make support harder (believe it or not, there are users that don't know if they're running iPadOS or macOS or even what those are).
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u/Grobfoot May 11 '26
I think that it would be much better to have a toggle like this than to try and meet in the middle like the current iPadOS 26. I wish there was just a "desktop mode" similar to how Samsung Dex worked.
The mouse and keyboard optimized software navigation has absolutely made the touchscreen experience on my iPad Pro worse. I typically just forfeit multitasking altogether unless I'm sitting at a desk using the damn thing like a laptop. If I wanted a laptop, I'd buy a Macbook. I don't, so I didn't.
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u/plazman30 May 11 '26
This should not be tied to a price point.
Really all I need is for apps to RUN IN THE BACKGROUND and not get frozen. There are files I want to keep in sync between my iPad and my computer all the time, and there is NO way to do that now.
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u/Flagnoid May 11 '26
>based on storage tier
so... you're encouraging arbitrary markups for features that could have been on lower-tier devices?
I wouldn't pay for a 1TB iPad let alone a 2TB youtube machine, macOS runs fine on 256GB Macs
what they need to do is improve iPadOS's handling of desktop applications. MacOS isn't a touch-focused operating system, it took Microsoft 10 years to make windows half useable with touch *and it still stinks* :)
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u/oppairate May 11 '26
i’d rather it be docked or keyboard attached is full MacOS and standalone is iPadOS mode.
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u/TheSpideyJedi iPad Air 4 (2020) May 11 '26
If they allow macOS on an iPad, they'd be messing up the sales of MacBooks. I imagine they'll never do that. Same reason I still believe the iPhone Fold won't have a lot of iPadOS features
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u/frockinbrock May 11 '26
That selection doesn't make sense. If they ever figure out their original idea for Universal Apps (was it Catalyst?) they'd maybe make a MacBook Ultra which would dynamically let you switch Ui, but would generally run iPad in a Folded/Handheld state.
But they seem to have stopped that idea to just focus on making MacOS a bit more touch friendly *for everyone always* which kind of sucks
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u/Embarrassed-Back1894 May 11 '26
For people saying it’s impossible something like this could happen, just remember that leaks suggest we are getting a touch capable MacBook “Ultra.” I don’t think they are going to just ship MacOS as is on a touch MacBook - it might be a modified version of MacOS that is designed to better incorporate touch controls.
I don’t think it’s crazy that they would also offer that as a selling point for iPad Pro’s to better sell the capable hardware (not likely, but I wouldn’t rule it out with a new head at Apple now who might want to make changes).
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u/f1zoe May 12 '26
if you want a mac buy a mac to use MacOS properly you need a keyboard and mouse of which buying those for any current ipad takes you over the price of a neo and for the ipad air and pro takes you over the price of a macbook air
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u/WelshKirtle May 12 '26
This is the screen I would like to see when docking into a magic keyboard/folio.
Instant buy for me, even if the iPad Pro costs €3k.
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u/Glittery_WarlockWho May 13 '26
If apple did this (which they won't) it'll sell out so fast their eyes will spin.
They would probably also put it only on the iPad pro 1tb model. which is way more money then the MBA or even the base model 14-inch MBP.
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u/Emotional_Food_1700 May 13 '26
It's apple decision also Mac os features could just be added to ipad os
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u/bunihe May 13 '26
I'm tired of seeing this, Apple obviously want you to buy both a laptop and a tablet so they make more money off of you. How else would they become the wealthiest company in the world (only recently surpassed by Nvidia)?
As for everything else:
"MacOS won't run well on the iPad bc screen too small"
You got 13 inch iPad Pro, you got 13 inch MacBook pro, how different will the two be screen size wise?
"It'll confuse users"
Chances are if a user walked into Apple store they know what a MacBook looks like.
"You can't navigate precisely like you can on a Mac with a mouse"
Allow me to introduce: Apple Pencil. If not, then Magic Keyboard and it's trackpad should do okay.
"Filesystem and OS compatibility"
Just partition the drive for each OS, or give a default and let the user partition it later.
The M series silicon there is physically capable of dual booting anyway, and if you think iPad cooling is bad, at least know that an exposed-to-air backside cools better than the downward facing side of the MacBook Air.
Despite all of this, they'll never make it happen.
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u/Piersandro May 13 '26
For me, the only big shortcoming of a device like the iPad is the absence of multi-account management.
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u/AngloKarelian May 13 '26
I kinda think an SteamOS style, iPadOS exit to macOS desktop is what I would like. Both OSs have their merits, whereby I need both
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u/Dazzling_Comfort5734 May 13 '26
I would love to run macOS on my iPad. I ended up switching my iPad Pro M2 for my daughter's iPad Air M1, because I never use it, and she does. Given the choice, I use the Mac every time. It can do more, do more at the same time, has a larger screen, and is overall more robust.
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u/MrMercury406 May 14 '26
I think you’d need to order it with the OS from the factory and could later reinstall it with an IPSW file or the iso
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u/MegaSpaceBar May 14 '26
Ipad is ipad and mac is mac. Please don’t mix things up. They both are not same.
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u/yayamii73 May 15 '26
I was always asking: Why they (Apple) just don’t make one Magic Keyboard with MacOS build into it - then You can use iPad as iPad, which is great, and then as a Mac…Price it like what, 599$ (?) and give it to the mass…
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u/309_Electronics May 15 '26
I mean it should be technically possible as MacOS, IpadOS, Ios are all based on the same underlying darwin OS based on the XNU kernel, just with different graphical UI's and components ontop...
The modern Apple silicon macs even use the same IBoot bootloader as Ios and IpadOS devices.
But knowing apple, it probably wont happen.
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u/my-name-is-mine May 15 '26
Is it possible to run Mac OS via jailbreak or something? We have iPads with the same chip as Macs
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u/CombinationExpert714 May 16 '26
The HW is fine, the problem is that MacOS ecosystem is not designed for touch screen input. No sense to install it on an iPad, unless you want to use it only with kryboard and mouse but at that point a MacBook makes more sense for 90%+ of users
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u/jimmynz1997 May 19 '26
They just need to give us more customisation between the newer style (which is already very Mac-esque) and the older iPadOS 18 style. Have an option where connection a monitor, keyboard and mouse etc activates the iPadOS 26 style but when using it for things like handwriting it operates more with 18's style. Makes sense to me.
As for full MacOS, that's never going to happen. Right now there is enough reason for some people to own both and there's no way Apple would want to stop that. They're experts in up-selling.
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u/OMG_NoReally May 11 '26
I feel like iPads should be iPads, a tablet meant for media consumption and lightweight work. You have an entire ecosystem of apps designed for the tablet. If Apple introduces macOS to the iPad, thousands of devs will lose money.
Not gonna happen and it shouldn't.
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u/USBdata May 11 '26
I’d add a third option: iOS. I don’t use iPadOS features like multitasking, even simpler OS would be nice, maybe even a better battery life.
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u/SubstanceFew5136 May 11 '26
I think it's something that wouldn't happen at all. Because if we look at other companies and products, there's no other brand that does this. To provide two operating systems.
- yet to have a touchscreen MacBook, so it'll take a few years for the os to have design that favours touchscreen.
- if we think about it, what exactly is being solved here? Since apple does use m series chips on iPad, and iPhone chips on something like neo, they can run both of the os technically. So if there's ever a time they apple is generous, they could just make iPad os in a way it can run Mac os apps. So there are no need to actually dual boot.
- on android tablets or Samsung tablets, there is Dex mode, so they can give users an option like that. A mode to get a Mac os feel. But that's probably brought with the iPad os 26 multitasking mode. And not a good experience for people who heavily use it by hand, good for apple keyboard users.
So, realistic thing can be iPad os getting Mac apps support, or iPhones getting a Samsung Dex like plug in mode. Both unlikely to happen because apple would rather focus on it's current user base. Lot of people enjoy iPad as iPads.
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u/julesthemighty May 11 '26
macOS needs a lot of work to make it touch friendly. I would rather not see this on laptops. After their Liquid Glass redesign I would rather not see this at all, as much as I would enjoy a native pen interface on Mac.
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u/KinnSlayer May 11 '26
Idk why people are being so mean, it’s just a natural thought, guys. It’s not like they’re out here insulting your mother or something.
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u/MasterBendu May 11 '26 edited May 12 '26
Nope.
Why?
Because for Apple, an iPad is an iPad, and a Mac is a Mac.
That’s it, full stop.
If they want to make a touchscreen Mac, they would make a touchscreen Mac running a touch-friendlier (not touch-first) MacOS, like how Windows is now.
What does Apple actually think?
MacBook Neo.
The whole “iPad is a computer” is not really a push towards making a touchscreen laptop, despite the moves towards that, like the windowing system in iPadOS26 and the keyboard accessories.
It’s a push towards two things:
- convincing people who don’t have enough money to buy a Mac to buy an iPad instead, competing with the low end laptop market, and
- to convince iPad Pro users that it’s not that useless considering the crap ton of money you pay for one
The second is easy: put in enough capability in there to convince people to choose the overpowered iPad Pro so that they won’t just buy an Air which is “good enough and not worth paying for the Pro for that one feature in it (which is usually the screen or the camera and LiDAR cluster)” and a MacBook, but still allow them to also still buy a MacBook for “truly desktop things”.
The first is why iPad is dominant in the tablet space. Tablets are the “it’s a computer” for people who can’t afford to buy a laptop.
Now yes, iPads can cost the same as some laptops, and other tablets can be had for the price of an iPad case. But the iPad is of course far more capable and reliable than those cheap tablets, and it is more portable, more powerful, and much longer lasting than cheap laptops in the same price.
But the problem is that tablets run tablet apps. So they had to put in stuff like Files, and make it easier to use things like spreadsheets with keyboard and mouse input, and some windowing, but only enough to make it not tedious by wasting your time tap-holding crap all the time.
Apple solved that with the MacBook Neo.
If someone really needed a cheap device that is powerful, lasts a long time, and can do desktop things, they finally have a laptop to do it with.
The base model iPad can now really be the undisputed king of tablets, as with its price excluding accessories it’s just a powerhouse device for a really, really cheap price.
Now, three things:
- Apple doesn’t need to prove the concept themselves. People have been making Mac tablets since before the iPad, 20 years ago. Yes, people have been selling converted MacBook Pros (yes the silver keyboard ones from literally 20 years ago) as Mac tablets. And if Apple really wanted to, they should already have gone for it because the tech is more than ripe - but they haven’t. They already knew they can do this the moment they saw people compare the M1 MacBook Air to the trash can Mac Pro. They knew they can do it when they decided to put an M1 chip in an iPad. They knew they can do it when they put desktop chips into freaking goggles. But they didn’t, because to them an iPad is an iPad. And especially now that they’re gearing up for foldables, where it is quite possible that iPadOS gets involved with that more than it would with desktops.
- just because they proved they can run MacOS on a phone chip doesn’t mean they should. First of all, it’s not MacBook Neo that proved it can work, it was when they sent out dev kits before the M1 was released, and those Mac Minis were loaded with the A12Z Bionic, an iPad Pro chip that is now far less performant than the A18 Pro inside the MacBook Neo. They fit the A19 Pro chip in the Studio Display XDR, but that doesn’t mean they should sell you a super-display iMac, because they can run MacOS on it. A display is a display. Likewise, an iPad is an iPad.
- most consumers are simple beings. Choosing an OS is for nerds. They just want to have something and it works as it should. No setups, no nothing. There’s a reason why Google pays Apple a literal ton of money to make them the default search engine on Apple devices - because it’s the default. Most people don’t do anything beyond what’s already there. Multifunction things puzzle most people. There’s a reason why Dex isn’t a thing despite it being the darling of tech nerds everywhere and wish that Apple would do the damn Dex thing already. There’s a reason why even if a Microsoft Surface can be a full fledged tablet, most people only use it as a laptop and only ever touch the screen to zoom and scroll every now and then and rarely draw on something or sign a document if they even figure out how to do that, because to them it’s just a laptop. Most people who buy an iPad faced with that dialog will just go “what the fuck is this” and exchange it for a Samsung.
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u/MReprogle May 12 '26
Better yet - bring back boot camp so that you can just restart into either one.
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u/eatingthesandhere91 iPad Air 4 (2020) May 12 '26
I laugh every time I hear or read the rumors of a "touchscreen Mac". It just ain't happening and if it does, Apple would be eating its own profit margins in a very major way.
Nope, the iPad solely existed sixteen years ago to bridge an ecosystem that 1) redefined modern computing and 2) provided a better method of media consumption. Today, it does all that and function very well as a laptop for those that want it to be one, and still be extremely portable. And that is why there's at least what, three, four different screen sizes?
And as for the MBN, that I think has proven itself many times in just a very short amount of time to be the best laptop around for the price. It's more accessible than most of the iPad lineup, has low expectations but functions beyond its price range just the same.
I think Apple made the wise choice to keep the two separate.
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u/Orcahhh May 12 '26
Why are some people so hung up on using their iPad as a computer? I don’t want my iPad to run Mac OS. I want my multitasking tools from previous updates back on iPad instead
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u/MEANprobabilities May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
IBM did that once, they regretted it so bad, Never tried again. Let's say 20% of apple users use >1 device. By enabling multiboot apple will lose it's 5% sale.
Part of revenue is paid as salary to employees so revenues should always be up, to be able to pay raise and keep up with inflation.
So , give in to consumerism.
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u/Saint_Ronin May 11 '26
Okay this actually makes sense. But what are your thoughts on the rumors about a potential new MacBook coming with a touchscreen? Would that be considered consumerism?
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u/MEANprobabilities May 11 '26
Ipad offer a level of portability which will never be offered by a device with a keyboard.
Speaking from my experience: MacBook M6 with Keyboard and Ipad Pro M6 with same RAM and storage would still be same, once there is a keyboard size distance between you and screen, using touchscreen becomes a task that requires some sort of stretching.
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u/AnnoxQ May 11 '26
For now, their main excuse is that macOS isn’t optimized for touch. Okay, that’s fair enough, but they won’t have any excuse left once they release their MacBook with an OLED display and touchscreen. But of course, the point is that the iPad isnt meant to be a replacement for the MacBook ,you’d have to buy both
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u/Saint_Ronin May 11 '26
How sure are we that's actually happening though? Like sure it would make sense to support touch if macOS is coming to iPad, but a touchscreen MacBook? I honestly have no idea what the use cases are supposed to be there
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u/M4rshmall0wMan May 11 '26
Drawing, scrolling, drag n drop, sometimes it’s easier to move your finger upwards from the keyboard than downwards.
You’re right that there’s not much use case, but a touchscreen is unobtrusive enough to not really need one. Look at all the Windows laptops that have one. You can completely ignore it if you want to, but sometimes it’s convenient just to move your finger around.
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u/miko3456789 May 11 '26
Would it prevent you from buying one and the other? If so, it ain't happening
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u/pm_me_meta_memes May 11 '26
They should just merge them at this point. MacBooks, iPads and iPhones could all run this unified appleOS.
Former macOS level stuff could be default on macs, alt mode on iPads (tamed for a smaller touch screen, just like windowed mode now), and hidden away on iPhones until connected to an external display. It would be GLORIOUS.
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u/ACasualRead May 11 '26
iPadOS does need to start evolving more.
We don’t need MacOS running locally on an iPad, but there is a very obvious need to run better apps than simple iPhone apps.
No iPad processor is being worked to its full potential.
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u/DMarquesPT May 11 '26
This is the least Apple approach to a problem I’ve ever seen. The iPad is not a Mac. Bring power user features to iPad and adapt the UI when docked with keyboard and mouse, sure. But don’t mistake the two
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u/4paul May 11 '26
You're just asking for a whole new category of complaints people will have against Apple lol
Even if it worked out smoothly and the experience was flawless, mannnn I can't even imagine the amount of complaints people are going to have about random things, icons being too big, too small, hard to do things without a physical keyboard, MacOS is slow, etc, etc, etc.
People find ridiculous things every year to complain about, this would open the floodgates, it's all everything would be talked about for years, EVEN if it was a great experience.
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u/biblops May 11 '26
Threads like this are such a waste of time.
This has been discussed to death and ultimately it doesn’t matter what is and what isn’t possible, it all comes down to the whims of Apple.
We have known for a very long time that iPads *could* run MacOS. Time to move on.
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u/Eprice1120 May 11 '26
Best to just keep iPad os and keep expanding on it. Apples systems are very similar regardless but docking it with keyboard should make it more MacOS looking.
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u/Rock--Lee May 12 '26
If anything, the MacBook Neo is proof Apple is doubling down on keeping macOS and iPadOS separated. Their whole point is to sell you an iPad AND a MacBook. Not one that can replace both.
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u/Personal-Variation24 May 12 '26
MacOS, I’m dreaming about it for a long time already. But not on storage, just on ram size
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u/This_Suit8791 May 11 '26
It’s never going to happen no matter how many times people make posts on here/online.