Business before pleasure? Hardly. Apple has been delivering both for years now, and the way we see it, the company is perfectly positioned to continue that trend. Time and time again, Apple has proven its ability to change our lives with devices such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, often perfecting existing ideas or filling voids that nobody else realized existed. But given the secretive nature of the crew in Cupertino, Apple fans and analysts alike constantly find themselves wondering: how will they follow it up? What’s the Next Big Thing? We admit that we’re no different, and it’s all too easy to let our imaginations run wild about the type of mouth-watering tech that Apple will unveil next.

All 3D renders by Adam Benton.

We’re not talking about an iPhone 5S, a beefier iPad Mini, or an iMac with a Retina display — that stuff is easy to predict. Instead of focusing on obvious evolutions, we looked at ways in which Apple could revolutionize how we work and how we play to come up with a handful of innovative concepts. Not just any pie-in-the-sky idea would do — while our concepts push us a little farther into the future, they’re grounded in real-world tech, and target areas in which Apple has shown interest.

Given Apple’s emphasis on cloud computing, we don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch to see the company forever change your personal workspace with the release of a “computerless computer,” and it’s not hard to envision Apple leveraging its unique blend of form and function to redefine something as traditional as the keyboard. That’s the “work” part of the equation—so what about “play”? For years, techies have speculated about how Apple could grab an even bigger slice of the gaming pie, and we’d like to think that our take could be the answer. Sure, these are just dreams, but who knows? Maybe Apple is hard at work turning them into reality.

CloudMac

Introducing the next generation of computing - sans a computer

You store your music in the cloud. You store your documents in the cloud. So why not store your entire computer in the cloud? The CloudMac would be a desktop computer — albeit without the computer physically being there. The actual computing would be handled by the latest hardware on an offsite server farm, and everything that you’ve traditionally stored locally — applications, documents, photos, music, movies, and more — would be stored in iCloud and tied to your Apple ID. It might sound a little intimidating to traditionalists, but the trick would be that you wouldn’t even realize what you’re missing — everything would be streamed to your monitor via a high-speed wireless connection without any noticeable lag.

A gorgeous, ultra-thin, transparent-glass HD display is a perfect match for the CloudMac. Almost everything, even the processing, occurs offsite. Access all your apps, files, games, movies, and music via iCloud — without any lag. 

The CloudMac would be compatible with virtually any modern screen, keyboard, or other input device, but you’d probably want new gear that glorifies the new era of computer-free computing; we’re talking a large, beautiful, credit-card-thin, transparent-glass Retina display that would come ready to sync up to your network and receive iCloud data transmissions without the need for additional adaptors or the like. (Naturally, it would come complete with a built-in iSight camera and incredibly svelte speakers.) The CloudMac would also work perfectly with Apple’s next-generation keyboard (see page 28), which could also serve as the hub for connecting any external devices you have that are still tethered by wires, such as — gasp! — optical media drives.

Since there’s minimal hardware involved, you’d never have to worry about upgrading or buying new equipment; Apple’s offsite supercomputers would stay up to date with the latest bleeding-edge technology, ensuring that your CPU and graphics card never become obsolete. Of course, the traditional purchase model would be done away with as well — instead, the CloudMac would be a fee-based service, which you could buy on a month-to-month basis or through quarterly or annual subscriptions. (Naturally, you could pay for additional storage space or extra features to suit your needs.) By eliminating most of the up-front costs, cutting-edge tech becomes more affordable for more users, ensuring that personal computing is within everyone’s reach.

Next page: How might Apple revolutionize the way we interact with our computers — or, more importantly, play with them? We've got a couple of ideas...