Speculation has been running rampant that Apple will be debuting a new 12.9 inch iPad, now being temporarily referred to as the iPad Pro. The screen size, up from the current 9.7-inch legacy iPad and the 7.9-inch iPad Mini, would be an attempt to appeal to a more professional demographic than current skews of the device, according to sources referencing leaks. 

With the device set to retail sometime in the middle of 2015, it will not be hitting store shelves any time soon, but that has not stopped new details from apparently being revealed.

If details from Digitimes are expected to be believed, there will be two versions of the device: one that will run the familiar iOS for its operating system and one that will integrate a Mac OS with iOS, something that was previously considered taboo by the company.

"We don't waste time thinking, 'But it should be one [interface]! How do you make these [operating systems] merge together?'" Apple president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller said in a January interview with Macworld. "What a waste of energy that would be."

Statements like this make these rumors especially questionable as it would require the company to go against what has been a policy of theirs for so long. This is despite the company having a so-called, 'common vision,' for their two operating systems.

That is not to say that running two operating systems on the new tablet would be completely outside the realm of possibility, though. Apple said several times that phablets were not a possibility for their mobile devices but that did not stop them from developing the iPhone 6 Plus. 

Further details that supposedly support this possibility include that Apple has patents in the public domain that show Macs with touchscreen displays. This could indicate that the OS is being optimized for touchscreen use. Siri is also being optimized for deeper integration into Mac OS, making their computers ideal for a mouse and keyboard free tablet experience on a laptop setup.

All of that said, this is something best taken with a grain of salt until it is confirmed by Apple, no matter how appealing it may be to customers. OS X Yosemite may have a lot of visual cues that were inspired by its mobile OS counterpart, but making the assumption that they would go all out and combine two of their most prolific wares into one unified format is big leap.

Apple is expected to make more official announcements regarding the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad some time before the end of the year.