Could iPad 4 Follow The Surface and Transformer Keyboard Trend?

The evolution of the touchscreen tablet seems to be heading to an interesting place – that of replacing the laptop. The Asus Transformer Prime and Microsoft Surface both have the type-pad option, so what about the next generation of Apple iPad?

I do like tablets from a design point-of-view and lots of my friends claim that their iPads have been one of their best buys. The thing is, I have a laptop, a notebook and an iPhone – what I’d want is something to come someway to replacing them – just as my iPhone 3G replaced my Nokia N95 and Sony PSP (which I used for games, music and web browsing).

It appears that designer Luis Fonseca thought the same and so came up with this iPad 4 concept.

Fonseca’s design has an in-built keyboard which slides out from the aluminium case of the 7- or 8-inch iPad.

The concept also packs Bang & Olufsen speakers, a 12MP/1080p camera, a quad core processor and a portable hard drive.

If this is the shape of the next iPad, I may well jump on-board the bandwagon!

What do you think – could they? Would they?