iPad Pro rumors are claiming Apple is going enterprise, with a 12 inch big screen and a faster CPU intended to compete with other brands.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Apple iPad Pro rumors actually started this past fall.

Apple has slowly been straying away from naming their iPad releases after numbers. For example, instead of releasing an iPad 5, they released an iPad Air. So, naming the new iPad, the iPad Pro would make sense depending on how they position the product.

The Microsoft Surface 2 and other competing tablets have been continually beating Apple when it comes to office productivity software and true multi-tasking, so the Pro name could mean Apple is seeking to break into the enterprise market.

Evercore Partners analyst Patrick Wang predicts the iPad Pro rumors will come true, and also take Apple in a new direction:

“Expect a 2-1 hybrid — think iPad + MBA — similar to how most iPads are used in the workplace and in the same spirit of MSFT’s Surface.”

But, the biggest rumor is that the iPad Pro may unify iOS and Mac OS X onto this one tablet. A detachable keyboard will allow it to become a notebook.

Hybrid devices are likely to be the long term plan for companies seeking to unify their Operating Systems and make the user experience seamless across multiple devices. Apple has talked about unifying their two operating systems in the past, although, unlike Microsoft, they plan to keep the user interface targeted to the device type, instead of forcing one interface across all devices (the Xbox One, which runs Windows 8, is an exception).

Essentially, the iPad Pro would replace the MacBook Air since the iPad Pro’s screen size is either 12.2 or 12.9 inches, making it very close in size to the notebook. Speaking of the iPad Pro screen, it’s also rumored to be running a higher 4K resolution instead of the typical Retina screen display. (Keep in mind this is just a rumor and running such a high resolution on a small screen is overkill.)

The iPad Pro CPU would be an ARM A8 64-bit quad core CPU. Although Apple already made the switch to 64 bit operating systems, they’ve mostly been limited to dual cores. It’s also a big deal since the MacBook Air CPU is made by Intel instead of ARM.

Of course, this part of the rumor greatly conflicts with the rest, since a Mac OS X ARM port would have to be completed, never mind that developers would have to compile their apps for the new platform. So, iOS and Mac OS X are likely to remain separate in the short-term, unless they plan on emulating much of the code (Apple has done that in the past when making the switch to Mac OS X in the first place).

Finally, Wang pegs the iPad Pro release date for the fall of 2014. And it’s not just Wang saying this. Supply chain research on Apple reveals they are ramping up manufacturing for product release in that time frame.

I wonder when tablets will replace desktops. Will it even happen?