Apple may not be allocating as much media focus to the MacBook Pro computers, but some of the technology that has debuted in the deskbound laptops is going to be adopted by a device closer to Tim Cook’s strategy. The iPad Pro is going to pick up the Touch Bar.
Not specifically the iPad Pro as a whole, but the Smart Keyboard Folio cover.
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, introduces the new iPad Pro at ... [+] the Apple event in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
Thanks to a recently published update to one of Apple’s patents (“Electronic device with a dual display system“), we know that Apple has a technique to bring a touch enabled display - such as the Touch Bar - into a flexible cover for a device. Looking at the illustrations, that suggests the Smart Keyboard Folio cover, as Patently Apple notes:
"Today Apple was granted a "continuation patent" for this invention deadly focused on delivering a MacBook Pro-Like Touch Bar for the iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard Folio, according to its revised patent claims starting with claim #1 as presented below.
"…Whether Apple will refine the Touch Bar for their Smart Keyboard Folio to match the thin bar design found on the MacBook Pro or expand it as the original patent presents it is unknown at this time.”
FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, file photo, a guest looks at the Touch Bar on a MacBook ... [+] computer shown in a demo room following the announcement of new products at Apple headquarters, in Cupertino, Calif. Higher-end models of Apple’s MacBook Pro now come with a narrow touch screen above the regular keyboard for quick access to common settings and tasks. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Assuming this arrives in retail stores - not all patents make it to products - then it would be another data point on Apple’s quest to move more ‘light computing’ tasks away from the relatively open MacOS to the more closed garden of MacOS.
But the Touch Bar on iPadOS will have the same issues as the Touch Bar on MacOS. No developer can count on 100 percent of the targeted devices will have the Touch Bar available. Any functionality in the secondary display will need to be replicated or not required on the main display.
Because it’s shiny it’s going to sell more smart keyboards, but will it have an impact on app development? I’m not so sure.
Now read more about Apple’s secret hinge in the MacBook Pro…