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For what MOST people do on their Mac or PC an iPad Pro can most definitely replace it. Unless you think most people run Logic Pro, Xcode, Photoshop or equivalent software.
Can it support multiple user profiles? No? Huh. Most couples and families I know rely on that. Apple's solution: buy a second/third/fourth/fifth iPad.
 
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Friends, this is the end as we know it.

Ok at this point I'm definitely starting to fear for the Mac.

Very astute, IMO.

They still need the Macs to develop the iOS apps - nobody is going to develop them on an iPad.

No, but they might develop apps on a Linux system. With Swift being open source and Apple putting resources into getting it to compile and run on Ubuntu... Who knows what could happen!

Macs are trucks. iPads are cars. There will always been a need for trucks, but it's overkill and inefficient for the mainstream. Plain and simple. Don't fight it.

I plan on my late 2013 MacBook Air lasting me for at least another 4+ years... But will this be my last Mac? Maybe. Probably. As it is now I do 75% of my computing on my iPhone and the last 25% is split between Mac and iPad. As iPad hardware/software beefs up, I can see my Mac dwindling even further.

Agreed with "don't fight it" but where does that leave people who need to use the Mac to make things for the iPad? Isn't there room for at least a decent truck or two on this metaphorical road?

Rather than blowing a ton of marketing money trying to convince people they want a tablet, which they know perfectly well they don't, why can't Apple just sell people the computers they want?

A tablet is not a computer replacement, it is crap in that role. People know it and that's why tablet sales are in the toilet.

If Apple doesn't figure that out soon, they're going down.

Man, I think it's already too late. The decisions have been made - iPad at all costs.
 
Swift also went open source...in theory if someone cared enough in time we could see 3rd party here. Kind of like other application development for compiled languages. Want/need to compile C code...lots of ways to do that. On Linux, windows, macOS. Question is only a matter of if you want to pay and how much (free and paid for versions exist).

I can easily imagine a world where Apple ports Xcode or something similar to Ubuntu. You can already write, compile and host the server backend to your iOS (and Mac) apps in Swift on Linux. I've worked with developers who have migrated their entire iOS development toolchain to Linux. They've replaced local Macs with co-located Minis to do the final compile and submission to the App store. Apple could even host such a service themselves negating the need for a Mac at all.

If Apple indeed bets the farm on iOS and software is moved to run as services in the Cloud (aka a datacentre running Linux) why shackle themselves to their quirky UNIX desktop? Even Microsoft is pivoting rapidly around Linux on the server; they've worked with Cannonical to port the Ubuntu user land on the NT Kernel.

Linux has already won in every category except mainstream desktop use.
 
Curious how Cook & co were all too partial to please the 4" iPhone whiners with a slapdash device, and for years the Mac users' pleas for updates have been falling on deaf ears. Probably because the Mac costs more to update. Beancounters, pennythrifters and MBAs be damned.
 
No, but they might develop apps on a Linux system. With Swift being open source and Apple putting resources into getting it to compile and run on Ubuntu... Who knows what could happen!

Exactly. That process has already begun.

Man, I think it's already too late. The decisions have been made - iPad at all costs.

Does seem like they are betting the farm on this brave new world.

The final piece of the puzzle will be what happens when the Mac lineup is refreshed. Sure, we'll get a new Macbook Pro and iMac but I think the Mini and/or the Mac pro will be discontinued.
 
Macs are trucks. iPads are cars. There will always been a need for trucks, but it's overkill and inefficient for the mainstream. Plain and simple. Don't fight it.

Macs are cars. Servers which Apple doesn't sell are trucks.

iPads are skateboards.

If Apple doesn't want to sell me a car, it's their loss, I'll buy it from someone else because I'm not going to tool down the highway on a skateboard.
 
I considered (briefly) whether my next portable computer could possibly be an iPad Pro. I would still need a computer robust enough for Xcode, Warcraft, running Virtual machines and such but could the "computer" I bring back and forth to the office, on trips, etc. be an iPad?

I can live with the file system. There's enough cloud storage options to effectively address that concern (whether iCloud, Dropbox, or even Office 365). The peripherals would be hard to adjust to but for most day-to-day operations, I could probably adjust. Most business applications and non-game applications don't require a highly robust machine.

For me--its the lack of a mouse or trackpad. Or even 3rd party mouse or trackpad support (which, to my understanding, is blocked by Apple). Yes, you CAN run Excel, Numbers, or another spreadsheet on it, for example, and there are many shortcuts to moving around with the keyboard, but I'm sorry--nothing interrupts your concentration more than to stop typing, touch the screen which is at a great angle for VIEWING but lousing for handling touch when its near-perpendicular to your plane of eyesight.

Likewise, if I'm going to remote into a "typical" computer (Parallels remote or Remote Desktop into Windows or even TeamView-like applications) for whatever reason, that mouse/trackpad becomes essential. The virtual trackpad apps like those support is good in very short durations but you'll need a real pointing device if you're going to be logged in for more than a few minutes.

I get that you CAN touch the screen and that opens more possibilities than the [current Mac] line of laptops available but touching the screen shouldn't be the only way to activate a link or press a button.

To me, that's the biggest issue. The second biggest would be that it should support an external screen. Not mirroring but an actual monitor (via an adapter or some other means where it doesn't lag behind the iPad). Ideally, an extended desktop. But, if you're going to support external screens, we're back to the need to support a mouse/trackpad since that external screen most likely won't be touch.
 
I can easily imagine a world where Apple ports Xcode or something similar to Ubuntu. You can already write, compile and host the server backend to your iOS (and Mac) apps in Swift on Linux. I've worked with developers who have migrated their entire iOS development toolchain to Linux. They've replaced local Macs with co-located Minis to do the final compile and submission to the App store. Apple could even host such a service themselves negating the need for a Mac at all.

If Apple indeed bets the farm on iOS and software is moved to run as services in the Cloud (aka a datacentre running Linux) why shackle themselves to their quirky UNIX desktop? Even Microsoft is pivoting rapidly around Linux on the server; they've worked with Cannonical to port the Ubuntu user land on the NT Kernel.

Linux has already won in every category except mainstream desktop use.

Wow! Yep at all of that!

Apple hosting the compile service would be interesting and a little strange at first, but I could see it as a possibility. Give them access to your Git or Mecurial branch, log into a website and click a button to make a new release. They will check your code out, compile, vet and distribute.

Giving you roaring applause!
 
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It's like Apple and MS are in a competition who will alienate their computer user base the quickest. Let's see who can make even more stupid decisions!
Damn it, I just know I will end up with Linux if they both continue like this.
 
That's it. I'm done with this company. We want a great smartphone, instead they give us an iPhone that's thinner instead of thicker and heavier with a huge battery. We want widgets and other cool Android features, instead they give us 3D Touch. I dare anyone here to tell us why 3D Touch is a useful innovation. I mean, supposedly rivals slavishly copy everything Apple does, yet we haven't seen anyone ripoff 3D Touch. That's telling. Instead of focusing on OLEDs, they focus on stupid input method. Why would anyone want UI to be pressure sensitive?

I would never would have imagined that Apple would neglect the Mac so they can peddle the stupid Apple Watch, plus bands. I don't need to track my health because I don't care. Nobody cares, Apple. Nobody. It's in fact pretentious to think that you can take technology and cobble it together into some personal device that would give individuals more attention over their own health. But the Apple Watch is doomed. Sales are embarrassing. The only people I've seen wearing these stupid watches have been really weird-looking people. So it's over. Good riddance.

But this iPad thing. I will never ever change my opinion. Just like how I thought the iPod was stupid, and was eventually proven right since Apple stopped making them. Ever since 2010, my feeling was that it's just a big iPod touch that does nothing useful and today, it is still a big iPod touch that does nothing useful. Even the name is stupid. MaxiPad, remember? Instead of killing off the stupid iPad, which is just a big iPod touch, they continue to "innovate" this crap when they should be pouring all of their efforts into real computers: the Mac—which, let's be honest, has barely been a computer ever since Microsoft released the Surface and Windows 8.

I'm afraid to admit it, but have to nonetheless. The Mac is now just a relic. Such a shame. It symbolizes a happier time where REAL computers were for REAL people.
You tell me why a right click mouse is useful innovation; then you will have the answer as to why 3D touch is useful innovation. ...stop trying to act like you Steve.
 
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A computer does not run iOS and does not have a ****** foldable keyboard.

More and more I'm seeing my iDevices as toys. When my iPad dies, I will probably go for the Mini or (if it still exists) the Touch. My MBP is the workhorse. My PC is my gaming rig. Please don't make me turn my PC into my primary workhorse. Danke.
 
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It's almost offensive at this point... Either phase out the Mac line or update it. Side-Note the keyboard displayed in the ad looks like something below the design standards of Logitech...
 
Apple created a solution in search of a problem when they made the iPad cpus so powerful. Right around the time of the iPad Air 2 it became reasonable that an iPad could potentially do everything a "regular" computer could do. But iOS and the apps built for it are no where close to take advantage.

A "Pro" iPad has no killer app. Perhaps Art and photo editing with an Apple Pencil is its killer app...but they don't seem to be marketing it for that kind of professional. They just call it Pro and magically expect it to be so. But I don't see the compelling software that needs power and needs to be on a touch first os. Either it's just consumption software or it's a limited version of the full featured software.

They need to find a compelling use case of the iPad in a professional environment and develop software to really take advantage of it's strengths. They should have done some real heavy R&D work into compelling use cases for iPad apps, or bought a developer that is already doing compelling work.

An iPad Pro smart keyboard looks like someone failed at their job. It looks neither convenient, ergonomic or efficient. And by using a keyboard like that it loses most of the advantages of a tablet. You can't set the screen in multiple positions. The stand looks silly, and the way it folds is just a gangly mess... a folding laptop is a much more 'portable' design.
 
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