Fans should expect to see new MacBooks before WWDC, slated for June. (Photo : YouTube/HandyAndy Tech Tips )
If Microsoft is to be believed, notebooks with detachable screen, touchscreen panel and native stylus support will be the wave of the future, anchored of course on the tech giant's Windows 10-powered Surface Book and Surface Pro hybrid devices. Will Apple rise to the challenge and deliver similar features with the rumored MacBook Pro and Air 2016 release date?
Apparently, the MacBook maker needs to pay attention on the emerging trend in which detachables or computing machines with two chief components - a keyboard dock that enhances productivity and a display panel that morphs into a tablet with stand-alone features when pulled away from its base - are generators in the PC market.
In a new report by research firm IDC and picked up by Business Insider, detachables are predicted to bolt away and leave conventional laptops, desktops and tablets behind. By 2020, the hybrid device is predicted to constitute some 30 percent of the global PC market, the report said.
Why the looming shift to hybrid computing? Because the devices are packed with the features that really matter, Microsoft said on its latest series of Surface Books ads. While both the MacBook and Surface Book sport high resolution display the former is upstaged for its lack of stylus support.
For instance, stylus use on the Surface Book redefines a user's relationship with the device. Photographer Tim Flach, featured in the same ads (clips can viewed below), said there are just too many things that can be done on the Microsoft device, which can't be accomplished on the MacBook.
And it all boils down to the Surface Book or the Surface Pro 4 both offering the options of being traditional computers when used with keyboard or being stand-alone tablets that fully support touchscreen and stylus inputs.
So will Apple CEO Tim Cook take heed and transform the MacBook lines into hybrid device? The latest word from Cook the matter, according to BGR, indicated that Apple will stick to its business model of building "the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world." The executive, as it stands, views the hybrid devices as representative of unnecessary compromises.
However, Cook had the same tone when rumors were raging that Apple will abandon its 4-inch iPhone screen standard in favor of larger screen sizes. Eventually, the iPhone display panel got stretched to 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch despite Cook indicating to the contrary.
And it should be safe to assume that the rumors of the MacBook Pro and Air 2016 getting stylus support and detachable touchscreen display on release date still make sense. Apple is expected to make clear of everything about the rumored MacBook upgrades on its annual WWDC in June 2016.
