Which is fine, and even make sense, but then you have Apple running "what's a computer?" ads and doing everything they can to suggest that the iPad can be your everything device, when in fact they're working diligently behind the scenes to keep that from being true. It just strikes me as super shady, especially now that the iPad and the Mac are internally identical for the first time ever.
Well, that tag line -what’s a computer - is something for you/the user to decide not for Apple or anyone else to determine for you/us.
I suppose I have a different orientation towards this debate about the M1 chip in the new iPads and the hard feelings that some are expressing.
I think back to Steve Job’s description of what the iPad was/is meant to be, or at least how Apple conceptualised it at the time. Simply put, it was an in between machine - something that sat between a phone and a computer.
When I consider my use (with an emphasis on the word “my”), that is precisely how I use it. I suppose one advantage I have is that unlike many here, I am not locked into any one s/w paradigm (the so-called walled garden). I use what is arguably an excellent Windows laptop, I use a good Android phone, and I use what I consider to be - relative to my use - the best tablet available. My point is that I don’t wish to substitute any one of these devices for the other. I did try that experiment with three generations of the Surface Pro (at least trying to integrate the laptop and tablet functions). It did not work well mainly because of - surprisingly - the hardware. The aspect ratio of the Surface is just not conducive for my purposes and does not serve my needs as the iPad does.
By integrating the M1 chip with more RAM (which Apple curiously mention), I don’t think Apple is straying from that initial Jobsian vision of the iPad. It remains their classic in between machine though that has not stopped avid users of a particular stripe to try to use the iPad as their primary and sole computing device. Such folks, in my opinion, tend to think that a “universal machine” would serve their purpose and likely it can, but that’s not Apple's concern. They likely want to maintain their product portfolio vision (from which they have not strayed too far, btw) and, naturally, maximise profit.
In this connection, it’s worth keeping in mind how Apple dealt with the iPod and the iPhone. With the former they had a killer device. It was, arguably, a revolutionary product. But they also recognised that maintaining it as an independent device would stymie what was then emerging as a critical communication device, namely, the phone (for Apple, specifically, the iPhone). Thus, their collapsing of the iPod into the iPhone was understandable. But there is no such imperative for Apple right now between their three primary products - the iPhone, the iPad and their Mac series of laptops.
Thus, in my opinion, while it is likely Apple will go some ways to unlock some of the potential of the iPad, there is likely a glass ceiling which they won’t transgress. Of course, much is contingent on how the IT industry trends. It could very well be the case that if we transition into a condition of ubiquitous connectivity supporting advanced cloud computing, the iPad could serve as a critical thin client. But we are not there yet.