Okay? Either way Apple has repeatedly, and I mean repeatedly. REPEATEDLY....said that it is not going to be merged with a Mac. So you can let it go. It's done.
Who said anything about merging an iPad with a Mac? I certainly didn't. Maybe read the thing you're responding to before responding to it...? Or don't. Makes minimal difference to me.
Best Buy has a Surface Pro (a combined vision of a Mac and an iPad) for $999
here. Add in the keyboard and pencil and you are at about, what, $1600?
(a) the keyboard and pencil on those are nowhere near $600 combined.
(b) Unlike an iPad, the Surface Pro CAN do all of the basic things that a computer does well because IT IS A COMPUTER. If someone really needed the portability of a 13-inch iPad and also the ability to do every computing task that doesn't require a high-end CPU and/or GPU, a Surface Pro would actually deliver on that. Unlike an iPad, which would still fail at a number of basic tasks pertaining to simple file and folder management that has been available in ancient operating systems such as Mac OS 7 and Windows 95.
(c) if a user wants to have both the simplicity of iPad, and the power of Macintosh (and again, I'm only talking about low-end specs and tasks here), that's two separate devices, costing a combined total of up to $3000 on the low-end. A casual computing user who wants a versatile tablet that can handle both tasks can nab a Surface Pro for a fraction of that cost and be just fine.
That will buy anyone an M1 Macbook Air for $649 from Walmart.
Then a basic iPad is another $349, add the Apple Pencil, and we are still well under the cost of a combined device.
Yes, you can buy discontinued products cheaper than brand new ones.
Also, I could set someone up with a Mac that has emaciated specs by today's standards and a base model iPad with the absolute lowest storage capacity available. It's not a practical solution and if you have someone wanting to go that cheap on a Mac, they're probably not trying to tack on an iPad unless it does something meaningful for them and more meaningful for them than using that same money to get a Mac that isn't two generations old with really low amounts of RAM and storage. Most non-techies hate spending money on tech. Most people on this site are tech (or at least Apple tech) enthusiasts. And most people in general fail to put themselves in the shoes of people whose needs and preferences differ from their own (hence the backlash over simply saying that the iPad is closer to an iPhone than to a Mac in terms of function and utility).
Otherwise, yeah, you have to decide. Personally I get everything off Swappa.
Swappa is a great resource. You and I are clearly tech savvy enough to know about and utilize it. I don't think it's that popular (to the point where you can use it to settle the whole "you don't have to pick one" debate). Even then, phone traffic on there is way more popular than Mac/tablet traffic on there.
That's life. It certainly looks like Microsoft doesn't care about the "average consumer" either.
Microsoft cares about the average consumer just fine. Their Surface computers are about the only decent Windows PC you can walk into a Best Buy or Costco and buy. It's the OEMs that don't. But that's honestly a topic I could rant forever about and I'd rather do that elsewhere.
It's not a compelling case as the average consumer is not as crafty. The average computer walks into a store and expects to walk out with a product. They're not buying used, refurbished, or on Swappa. I do agree that a crafty person can totally get both and to a point where it doesn't break the bank. But again, that's not the people we're talking about here.
Futhermore, you did not make any kind of case as to why someone needs an iPad in their life if the computer does the same and then some.
No, clearly only you get to define what exactly constitutes a viable computing platform.
You seem to be missing the part where I'm reiterating an opinion that is extremely popular amongst tech reviewers and users and then contorting that sentiment into me dictating reality. I'm perplexed by how you land on such conclusions, especially since I, earlier in this very thread, state that I HAVE found SOME users that can use an iPad as their primary computing platform but that this isn't the case for anywhere near the majority of users that I encounter.
Then why exactly do you care about said opinions so much--since Apple "couldn't care one crap"...
For the exact same reason you are wasting your own time replying to me.
We don’t have to make the case — Apple already has and the results demonstrate that the iPad and iPadOS is indeed a viable computing platform by any objective standard.
Nothing you have presented backs this up in any way whatsoever. Last I checked, there is far more chatter to the contrary.
Furthermore, you are using the word "objective" where I'm pretty sure the word you want to use instead is "subjective". If it were objective, you wouldn't have several threads on this site, let alone several videos and articles that disagree with this. Because it would be objectively true rather than subjectively true.
I'm not saying it isn't a successful product. I'm saying it's not a viable replacement to a PC or Mac for the vast majority of entry level/basic/low-power use cases. That link doesn't have any relevance to the topic. It defends the notion that the iPad has reason to exist, but I never disagreed with that notion. Suggesting that iPadOS should have more features that enable it to do more things isn't an indictment on the iPad as a whole; it's an indictment on the fact that $1000-3000 for an iPad Pro doesn't make sense outside of tasks requiring an Apple Pencil and that the average consumer has no practical reason to play ball AND buy a Mac unless money is no object. ...Which you take as a personal offense for whatever reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPad
- According to Greg Joswiak: “The fact is that the majority of Mac customers have an iPad, and they use them both.”
700 million units sold is objective proof that the iPad is indeed a viable computing platform — despite opinions to the contrary. And the fact that the majority of Mac customers have an iPad do not support the opinion that the “average Joe” can only afford one device.
You're stringing data points together that don't make sense to string together.
Macs are expensive.
This means that one of two things are generally true. Either (a) someone has enough money to comfortably buy whatever they want to, or (b) buying a Mac is something they're only able to do once in a blue moon.
I'd completely buy that more Mac customers are in the former camp than the latter camp.
But you're fooling yourself if you're saying that folks in the latter camp are buying iPads.
If you only have enough money for a smartphone and either a tablet or a Mac/PC, you're buying the tablet ONLY if it meets all of your needs. If it doesn't, then it's not a viable option.
So, all you are saying is that an iPad cannot replace nor fully serve a computer, which is the very point I've been making since the beginning. An iPad is not as capable as Apple markets them to be. It doesn't make them bad products. Doesn't make you or I foolish for buying them. It just is what it is. And again, I have no freakin' idea why people get so offended when someone calls these things out. Why do you care if someone else dismisses a product you like? Are we not allowed to have differing opinions? I'm asking seriously because, as far as I can tell, I'm debating with four or five folks in this thread about how commenting on the limitations of a product constitutes being condescending.
There are two fundamental things about commercials that I think many people in these forums are missing.
1) commercial slogans are meant to plant a seed in your mind to make you consider the product, they aren’t promises. Example: Pringles “once you pop you can’t stop.” Surely some people can stop.
2) just because you see a commercial doesn’t mean it is for you. As a grown man, I don’t get frustrated at commercials for fidget spinners. It’s for whoever it’s for, if not me.
There are some people for whom an iPad can be their next computer, and they may not realize it. These iPad commercials are for them. They aren’t lies or tricks any more than any commercials are.
I'm not saying that an iPad Pro commercial advertising the iPad Pro as my next computer is directed at me. I know and have known all along that it isn't directed at me. My point is that this is what Apple is using to sell people into the iPad Pro. Even if their tone about this has been subdued in later iterations of their adverts, this is still how they are marketing and pricing out the iPad Pro. Similarly, no matter how much any of us want to deny it, there's PLENTY of functional overlap between 12.9/13-inch iPads and 13/14-inch MacBooks. Some of us can and do buy both. A LOT of us don't. That doesn't change the fact that Apple is pushing this as a viable alternative when, in a lot of fundamental cases, it's not.
We are free to express subjective opinions here like you said, but in a public forum that will very frequently come retorts, irritation, taking offense, etc. It’s not always easy, but each of us still can and needs to keep it as sincere and civil and respectful as possible, otherwise this place will suck and no one will want to come here anymore.
The people that I'm engaging with in this thread are not being civil nor respectful. Everyone is getting their feelings hurt over opinions about the iPad that differ from their own. I'm not even saying it's a bad product and people are acting like I'm insulting their way of life for owning and loving them just because the platform has some very obvious and widely discussed shortcomings, which is utterly absurd. I'm not going to act like that isn't absurd.
