That's not exactly what he said. He said that touch surfaces want to be horizontal. Here's my (purely speculative) take: Fullscreen apps in OS X are a transit

That's not exactly what he said. He said that touch surfaces want to be horizontal. Here's my (purely speculative) take: Fullscreen apps in OS X are a transitional component. Future Macs are going to be dual mode. Remember the patent Apple filed with an iMac that converted from vertical to horizontal (1)? So imagine you've got an iMac on your desk. You're working away in OS X as you always would with a mouse and keyboard. You pull your iMac toward you and it pivots to a horizontal orientation. Sensors in the hinge signal the app to switch to fullscreen mode and you begin using the app through a touch interface using your fingers. When you're done, you return the display to the vertical position and move back to your mouse and keyboard. My level of certainty isn't terribly high here, because I think there are ergonomic challenges to a pivoting touch screen device that sits on a desk. When using my iPad, the ideal position is definitively not at desk height. The device needs to be very, very close to you in order to avoid the fatigue associated with reaching. A pivoting iMac is still going to require some reach. I'm also realistic about the fact that not every patent Apple files makes it to production. It's just some idle pondering. 1 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7961480/Apple-files-iMac-touch-patent.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7961480/Apple-fi...