Apple imagines an accessory that turns the iPhone into a computer July 15, 2020 – Posted in: Smartphone news

During the WWDC conference, Apple recently announced the transition of its computers from Intel processors to Apple Silicon processors based on arm technologies. With this transition, Cupertino hopes to be able to offer more efficient computers that also use less energy. At the same time, the transition to arm processors for Macs allows Apple to converge between its computers and smartphones thanks to a common architecture. As a result, computers with Apple Silicon processors can launch iOS applications as if they were native applications.

And today we also have reason to believe that the iPhone may one day be able to launch applications for computers. In an article published in July of this year, the Patently Apple website shares patents that show that Cupertino could one day bring an accessory that looks like a computer and could do the job to turn the iPhone into a MacBook.

Of course, the existence of these patents does not mean that Apple will launch a product. However, since the company is currently merging iOS and macOS, the idea of ​​the engineers who imagined this accessory is now closer to reality.

Could Apple Succeed Where Others Failed?

In any case, Apple would not be the first digital player to convert smartphones into computers. For example, Motorola launched the Motorola Atrix in 2011, which can be connected to a monitor and keyboard. There was also the Canonical Ubuntu Edge project, which failed, and Microsoft’s Continuum functionality for smartphones running Windows 10 Mobile. Samsung is already offering the DeX function on its Galaxy S and Galaxy Note smartphones, through which we can access an interface that is similar to that of computer operating systems when we connect them to a screen and keyboard. If others have already tried to offer this new use for smartphones, it may be Apple that makes it known.

While Apple is waiting for the release of the first MacBook with Apple Silicon processors, Apple is already offering developers a development kit. This uses an iPad processor, but already gives an idea of ​​the performance that the company’s future computers will have.