Apple CEO Tim Cook Rejects Idea of Laptop-Tablet Hybrid

Apple’s boss has dismissed the idea of mixing laptops and tablets into a hybrid product.

Chief executive Tim Cook said the idea of combining the iPad and MacBook Air would “wind up compromising” both.

Rival Asus already markets such products in its Transformer series. Intel has also been a vocal advocate of the idea.

Mr Cook also said he hated litigation, signalling a willingness to settle patent disputes.

It comes after Apple reported its profits almost doubled in the first three months of the year and it sold 11.8 million iPads, 150% more than the same period last year.

When asked if Apple planned to build a notebook that closed “in a clever way” to let it be used as a tablet, Mr Cook attacked the idea.

“Anything can be forced to converge,” he said in a conference call after the results, as transcribed by financial news website Seeking Alpha.

“But the problem is that products are about trade-offs, and you begin to make trade-offs to the point where what you have left at the end of the day doesn’t please anyone.

“You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.

“We’re not going to that party… others might from a defensive point of view.”

The statements contrast with Intel’s vision of the future. The chipmaker makes the processors that power Mac computers, but not its tablets and phones.

Intel showed off a prototype laptop that converted into a tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Earlier this week its PC business chief told the BBC it still believed the concept would prove popular with users of Microsoft’s next operating system.

Continue reading at BBC News.

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