Apple Is Reportedly Planning A 12-Inch iPad That Will Be Like Microsoft's Surface

Here's the oddest Apple rumor that just won't go away.

Apple is planning a 12.2-inch iPad that will rival Microsoft's Surface tablet. The big iPad, which many are calling the "iPad Pro," will be thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus, according to Japanese site Macotakara, via Apple Insider.

The iPad Pro will supposedly have better speakers than an iPad Air 2, but it will be similar to an iPad Air.

There have been numerous reports about Apple developing a larger iPad, so we believe it's going to happen.

The larger iPad seems like it would fill the gap between the current iPad and a laptop if Apple were able to change the software and add an attachable keyboard like Microsoft does with the Surface.

The iPad has lost its footing lately. Perhaps this new screen size, and the use case that comes with it, could inject life back into iPad sales.

If Apple does an iPad Pro it will be a bit of a surprise since the company's executives have been overwhelmingly dismissive of the Surface. In 2012, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about two-in-one laptop/tablet hybrids. This is what he said:

I think, Tony, anything can be forced to converge. 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.

And so our view is that the tablet market is huge. And we've said that since day one. We didn't wait until we had a lot of results. We were using them here, and it was already clear to us that there was so much you could do and that the reasons that people would use those would be so broad. And that's precisely what we've seen.

...

Now having said that, I also believe that there is a very good market for the MacBook Air, and we continue to innovate in that product. And -- but I do think that it appeals to somewhat -- someone that has a little bit different requirements. And you wouldn't want to put these things together because you wind up compromising in both and not pleasing either user. Some people will prefer to own both, and that's great, too.

But I think to make the compromises of convergence, so -- we're not going to that party. Others might. Others might from a defensive point of view, particularly. But we're going to play in both.

And then earlier this year Phil Schiller, SVP of Marketing, told MacWorld:

It's not an either/or. It's a world where you're going to have a phone, a tablet, a computer, you don't have to choose. And so what's more important is how you seamlessly move between them all… It's not like this is a laptop person and that's a tablet person. It doesn't have to be that way.

When Apple releases an iPad Pro, we expect the software will be different, which will allow Apple to defend its previous statements. It won't have Mac software and iPad software. Instead it will only be iPad software.