Discover the path Apple’s likely to take with upcoming Macs

Will your next Mac have an 8K display and Intel inside – or will it have more in common with an iPhone than a Mac mini? We discover the trends that’ll shape the next wave of Macs

Tim Cook is many things, but a loose-lipped blabbermouth isn’t one of them. So when he told an interviewer in September that“some people will never buy a computer, because I think now we’re at the point where the iPad does what some people want to do with their PCs”, Apple observers were quick to read the technological tea leaves. They looked again at the keynote video where Apple raved about the iPad Pro’s “desktop class” performance. They cited John Gruber, aka Daring Fireball, whose benchmarks discovered that the iPhone 6s had faster single-core performance than the new MacBook. They came to the obvious conclusion: the Mac is dead. We beg to differ. Yes, the lines between the latest iPads, the iPad Pro and the new MacBook may be blurry – but the Mac’s in great shape.

That’s because Apple is building a family. It’s a family where Macs and mobiles coexist, and where technology from one side of the family is shared and improved upon by the other before being used by everybody. Just think of the technologies and achievements that appeared in iPhones and iPads before moving into Macs, such as all-day battery life, fast flash storage, pin-sharp Retina displays… even the idea of giving away Apple operating systems for free started with iOS.

But it’s not a one-way street, however. The Force Touch technology we first saw in this year’s MacBooks now adds an extra layer of interaction to iOS. New processors unlock interesting possibilities, little accessories could have a huge effect on the way we interact with our Macs, and new technical standards could transform the way we communicate and even power our devices. Over the next few pages we’ll discover what’s on the horizon and how it’ll shape the future of your next Mac.