Tablets and laptops are increasingly being designed to ace each other, with 2-in-1 devices and touchscreen laptops more common than ever, and high-powered tablets often doing just as much as a laptop could with detachable keyboards. 

According to new reports, Apple could be among those making further plans in this area, potentially involving a more complex keyboard attachment for the new iPads it will unveil in 2020. 

A Digitimes report claims that new models of the iPad and iPad Pro will be compatible with all-new versions of the Smart Keyboard accessory that Apply currently makes. This new version will apparently pack in scissor-switch keys and LED backlighting to make it more of a reliable option for long typing sessions than existing models. 

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Backlighting is something that many Smart Keyboard users would welcome, but which has so far been absent from Apple's somewhat pricey peripheral. 

Similarly, the rumoured change to scissor switches for the keyboard would be an interesting continuation of Apple's movement towards the mechanism after resisting for a few years. The 16-inch Macbook Pro that it debuted late last year featured them, its first laptop to move away from its butterfly system of recent years.

That would also see the keyboard likely to bear a resemblance to the Magic Keyboard which Apple sells, which has long used the scissor switch system.

Of course, this is only a rumour at this stage, doubly so given that we don't know a great deal about Apple's plans for its tablets, let alone their peripherals.