Early leaks about an upcoming Apple computer with an 18- to 20-inch folding display were vague about whether the device will be an iPad or the first Mac with a touchscreen. In the wake of the introduction of iPadOS 26, the answer now seems obvious: Apple’s extra-large folding tablet will be an iPad.
Recent comments by a high-level Apple executive about not merging macOS and iPadOS add weight to the theory.
Why Apple needs a folding iPad
Bigger screens make work easier and play more enjoyable. That’s why we all have large displays in our offices and living rooms. But toting a hefty LCD around to use while on the go is hardly practical.
One solution is foldable screens. Consider that if the current 13-inch MacBook Air dropped its keyboard and trackpad, there’d be room for a 20-inch display inside the laptop. That’s double the screen area for leaning forward and being productive or leaning back and watching video — all while maintaining the slim, lightweight, easily portable shape.
It’s a possibility that apparently hasn’t escaped Apple’s attention. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst with TF International Securities, says there’s a computer with a 20-inch foldable screen on Cupertino’s drawing board. An Apple product roadmap prepared by Omdia analysts includes an 18.8-inch computer with a folding display in 2028. Sources talking to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman agree on the possible 2028 release date.
A folding iPad, not a Mac with a foldable screen
While multiple sources concur that Apple plans a large-screen foldable computer, the leaks do not agree on whether it will be a Mac or an iPad. Some sources mention macOS, while others call the folding device a very large iPad.
But my time with iPadOS 26 tells me that Apple created this operating system with a super-size tablet in mind.
Previous versions of the OS work well enough on 11- and 13-inch screens, especially if Apple had kept improving the Stage Manager multitasking system over time. But the old iPadOS is flatly inadequate for a 20-inch screen. Most notably, the iPad’s Split View and Slide Over multitasking options would be utterly impractical on such a large display.
iPadOS 26 deemphasizes Split View and drops Slide Over. The upcoming OS includes a new multitasking system — called simply Windowed Apps — that’s far more Mac-like than any previous iPadOS version. My experiences with the new OS show it’ll work well on a large folding iPad.
Apple won’t make a touchscreen Mac
Fitting the most screen into a foldable computer requires leaving out the physical keyboard and trackpad. A touchscreen is used instead, with a virtual, on-screen keyboard. macOS is completely unsuited for such a device. For starters, it has no virtual keyboard. And it’s designed to be controlled with a slim little pointer, not a relatively bulky fingertip.
Apple would have to make dramatic changes to macOS to add support for touchscreens. And these radical changes would surely anger those using a traditional Mac.
Plus, Apple already has an operating system for touchscreen-based computers: iPadOS. And Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, went on a press junket in recent weeks to repeatedly explain that macOS and iPadOS won‘t merge. Although iPadOS 26 borrows heavily from macOS, it’s not the first step in making the iPad into a Mac.
Talking about making iPad more Mac-like, ” Federighi told Ars Technica. “We’ve said, ‘Why not, where it makes sense, use a converged design for those things so it’s familiar and comfortable.’ But where it doesn’t make sense, iPad’s gonna be iPad.”
A MacBook rut is a dead end
Some people resist the whole idea of foldables, arguing that the designs used by today’s MacBooks, iPads and iPhones are good enough. That’s not a successful long-term strategy.
Companies that don’t keep innovating, and just keep pumping out slightly updated versions of the same old things, eventually get beat out by their competitors who create exciting new classes of products. Apple needs to keep exploring fresh possibilities, not simply dropping faster chips into MacBooks once a year.
A 20-inch foldable iPad might be the best mobile computer Apple ever offers, or maybe it won’t be — the only way to find out is for Apple to make one. Staying at the forefront of technology requires taking risks.
