iPad Pro Had a business meeting today, with some pretty big executives... iPad Pro was device of choice

[Flowstates]

In my recent meetings with biometric tech leaders I’ve found they actually use ReMarkable.

I had the opportunity to attend an event with some local gov officials, industry reps and academics recently.

The remarkable was used by the most tech savy individuals (correlation not causation), whereas boomers and legacy media used old-school paper and pen and academia used a mix of paper and pen / iPads.

Keep in mind that this was a round-table with preprovided talking points and data. The only need for a medium was to offload short term memory. The recordings were later publlished in written form.

To me this was representative of an efficient meeting, none had a laptop and having one would most likely either signal lack of preparation or distraction.

Keep in mind that this was in Europe, YMMV.

I would love my Remarkable 2 if only the Wifi pairing wasn't so *****, put 5G in one and this would become my primary computing device in a heartbat.

 

[thefourthpope]

Yes of course, which is why I said they’re good for meetings. I meant they aren’t as effective for the other tasks you may need such as in-depth research, data analysis, better multi screen support, specialised softwares, better file management and document editing. A lot of which possible of course, but arguably less efficient.

Snazzy labs does a brilliant recent video about how it’s a lot of the little missing features that Apple haven’t included that are holding it back. Of course if it works for you then great, but for a lot of tasks it just ain’t it!

I’ve got a laptop that I use every day, for sure.

Maybe I was too defensive. I just see lots of posts on MR defining and critiquing what counts as “serious” or “professional” work. Meetings — especially well-run meetings — should always be included.

 

[heretiq]

On another note : Executives mainly use email, PDFs, and Chat/Text messages, maybe KPI viewer such as Power BI or Tableau... I'm not too surprised they can get away perfectly with an iPad Pro.

This looks like a non-executive’s idea of what an executive does and what tools they use.

 

[Flowstates]

This looks like a non-executive’s idea of what an executive does and what tools they use.

One of my teachers (Ex-McKinsey) told me that the most useful tools in the arsenal for an executive were a good list of restaurants, in-depth knowledge of wine pairings (although nowadays it may have shifted toward designer-beers) and discretionary spending on company cards.

 

[heretiq]

Yes of course, which is why I said they’re good for meetings. I meant they aren’t as effective for the other tasks you may need such as in-depth research, data analysis, better multi screen support, specialised softwares, better file management and document editing. A lot of which possible of course, but arguably less efficient.

Snazzy labs does a brilliant recent video about how it’s a lot of the little missing features that Apple haven’t included that are holding it back. Of course if it works for you then great, but for a lot of tasks it just ain’t it!

I generally agree with your point that certain tasks that are possible on an iPad can be performed more efficiently or more effectively on a laptop or desktop. The reverse is also true.

However, I believe that judging a device’s suitability for a given task should be based on whether or not it can perform the task — not necessarily how well it does it, because good-enough is often subjective and what doesn’t work for person A is workable for person B.

It’s the subjective nature of “professional work” that puts us all in this never ending debate of whether an iPad is suitable for “professional” work. For many who are using it to achieve their view of professional work it is suitable, to others who have a different definition it is not.

It should be easy to agree on what constitutes “professional” work (I.e., “Something a person gets paid to do.”) and put this debate to rest; but this simple and factual definition is surprisingly hard for some to accept.

 

[heretiq]

One of my teachers (Ex-McKinsey) told me that the most useful tools in the arsenal for an executive were a good list of restaurants, in-depth knowledge of wine pairings (although nowadays it may have shifted toward designer-beers) and discretionary spending on company cards.

Love it! Those are definitely useful tools! I suspect that your McKinsey mentor (some of the brightest, most capable people I’ve met are alums) followed that statement with something along the line of “of course none of that matters if you don’t know your ‘stuff.’” 🤓

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I couldn’t do my job on a Mac, let alone an iPad but many use iPads in meetings for note taking where I work.

 

[heretiq]

Execs don't really do productive work to provide utility. They'll consume content which is what the iPad is excellent at.

In every company I’ve worked for from startups to Fortune 100, such execs would be on a 60-90-day exit plan.

 

[Flowstates]

Love it! Those are definitely useful tools! I suspect that your McKinsey mentor (some of the brightest, most capable people I’ve met are alums) followed that statement with something along the line of “of course none of that matters if you don’t know your ‘stuff.’” 🤓

I expected this to be par for the course . I agree about the caliber of individuals they seem to attract. Although I'd wager that this may not remain the case for long. Of all the individuals in my cohort that summon the most respect, most of all have eschewed CLaw for IntLaw, sustainable Dev or Medicine.

 

[ericwn]

I had the opportunity to attend an event with some local gov officials, industry reps and academics recently.

The remarkable was used by the most tech savy individuals (correlation not causation), whereas boomers and legacy media used old-school paper and pen and academia used a mix of paper and pen / iPads.

Keep in mind that this was a round-table with preprovided talking points and data. The only need for a medium was to offload short term memory. The recordings were later publlished in written form.

To me this was representative of an efficient meeting, none had a laptop and having one would most likely either signal lack of preparation or distraction.

Keep in mind that this was in Europe, YMMV.

I would love my Remarkable 2 if only the Wifi pairing wasn't so *****, put 5G in one and this would become my primary computing device in a heartbat.

I haven’t found a good use for mine other than scribble notes down. In text recognition, file handling, syncing data via services etc any iPad runs circles around the rm. As a pure replacement for paper and pen sure.

 

[heretiq]

I expected this to be par for the course . I agree about the caliber of individuals they seem to attract. Although I'd wager that this may not remain the case for long. Of all the individuals in my cohort that summon the most respect, most of all have eschewed CLaw for IntLaw, sustainable Dev or Medicine.

A couple traits I’ve noticed amongst McKinsey alums is street smarts and ruthless adaptability. I suspect this is ingrained in the McKinsey culture and therefore expect to see them pivot as required to stay not just relevant, but in the leader quadrant; but time will tell. 🙏🏽

 

[Flowstates]

I haven’t found a good use for mine other than scribble notes down. In text recognition, file handling, syncing data via services etc any iPad runs circles around the rm. As a pure replacement for paper and pen sure.

I agree with the sentiment. And being that for me, the main interest in using Digital Paper was the security stemming the data being stored in digital form off device, the digital eraser for unsteady lefties like me and the inherent discoverability afforded by computer-based archivism. The inability for the device to properly fulfill that role made it redundant.

I also use an iPad now, although the writing surface is less agreeable (I use a paperlike film) the 5G and integrated software makes it a better fit for the time being.

 

[Flowstates]

A couple traits I’ve noticed amongst McKinsey alums is street smarts and ruthless adaptability. I suspect this is ingrained in the McKinsey culture and therefore expect to see them pivot as required to stay not just relevant, but in the leader quadrant; but time will tell. 🙏🏽

Agreed ! One of the things that I adore when talking with front-office leadership types is the ability to bond with anyone based on those street smarts you described and an uncanny general-knowledge.

Some of the best night outs I had were with those kind of types, bond as a smaller group and watch yourself bounce between venues with ease, thriving social butterflies are a sight to behold.

That being true with non-managers, I don't know enough MBB managers to form an opinion although I do expect them to be the same with a few more performance-round battle-scars.

My remark about the uncertain future stemmed from the general direction of the consulting markets. Combined with increasing backlash associated with the use of their consulting services by governmental entities. And the reality of the potential impact to be unleashed when going through the Entrepreneurship / IB / VC gauntlet ... I'll concede that those paths are permeable but still, I do feel that at the very least, within my social circle big threes lost luster.

 

[KPOM]

no i said powepoint is just one example
many other ipad apps are similarly water-downed; even apples own apps like pages and many more (matlab, latex, and list goes on)

Keynote on iPad has similar functionality to Keynote for Mac. If Microsoft wanted to make PowerPoint for iPad more like PowerPoint for Mac or Windows they could. Even the least powerful iPad 10th generation has similar performance to an early 2020 MacBook Air.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I gotta say, it's ridiculous that this thread quickly became a discussion of whether or not what business people do is considered work.

I get it - iPad doesn't work for everyone. But it's absurd to move the goalposts of what work is.

 

[stanza.richi]

Keynote for the iPad with Apple Pencil could be really interesting: more than one times I used the pencil to draw during presentation or simply as red light pointer sharing the screen. Far way more comfortable than every physical pointer. I think that iPad could be really good for consumption and production of consumable things like keynote or similar. And that make iPad a really useful tool during meetings, in my opinion.

 

[Tito360]

Ten people were in the meeting...

Five iPad Pros (including two of the most recent M4 models - one 11 inch and 1 13 inch, mine)
4 Windows Laptops
1 Macbook Air

And people claim iPads aren't for work?

My meeting was all surface pros as they also had to do presentations

 

[PsykX]

This looks like a non-executive’s idea of what an executive does and what tools they use.

I've seen a few executives work and honestly they don't need much more than that.
It depends on the size of the company. I work for a really big one. The smaller the company, the more tools they need.

At my job they all have iPhones but they have Surface Pros.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

no i said powepoint is just one example
many other ipad apps are similarly water-downed; even apples own apps like pages and many more (matlab, latex, and list goes on)

It’s up to the developers to make apps at par with the Mac version.
The APIs for iOS and iPadOS are not the ones limiting the apps.
There are some differences between macOS and the iPad but not limitations.

 

[sk1985]

Nearly all svps and evps use iPads. They don’t work in excel, access, powerpoint, or sql.

 

[boss.king]

Ten people were in the meeting...

Five iPad Pros (including two of the most recent M4 models - one 11 inch and 1 13 inch, mine)
4 Windows Laptops
1 Macbook Air

And people claim iPads aren't for work?

As someone who uses an iPad, I still firmly believe that they aren't very good for most work. If you have a very light workload that mostly consists of emailing, attending meetings, reviewing (but not really building or editing) documents, and doing non-device work, it's probably fine, but if you are actually using the device for document editing, any sort of media production tasks, etc, not so good.

As a former writer, an iPad could cover everything I needed to do in theory. In practice, it was a nightmare to try use it with the digital infrastructure of most businesses. Maybe if I worked completely alone I could have build a workflow that wouldn't have me reaching for a laptop, but that just seems like more trouble than it's worth.

 

[heretiq]

no i said powepoint is just one example
many other ipad apps are similarly water-downed; even apples own apps like pages and many more (matlab, latex, and list goes on)

Watered down does not equal not professional or not capable. The Keep It Simple Stupid axiom exists for a reason: Simpler is often better than overly complex. In fact, from my own experience Apple, Microsoft, Affinity and other watered down” iPad app versions can easily handle 80% of what the desktop versions can do and that is more than sufficient for many users. I suspect this is the same with Matlab and others. Net-net: To me, simplified iPad apps are not a liability, it is actually a benefit .. and I suspect this is true for others as well.

 

[mperkins37]

Have the new 13" M4 512GB iPad Pro being delivered tomorrow, last one I owned was a gen 1 iPad Mini 16gb.

 

[UltimateSyn]

More importantly... 11" or 13"?

 

[starlabjump]

Watered down does not equal not professional or not capable. The Keep It Simple Stupid axiom exists for a reason: Simpler is often better than overly complex. In fact, from my own experience Apple, Microsoft, Affinity and other watered down” iPad app versions can easily handle 80% of what the desktop versions can do and that is more than sufficient for many users. I suspect this is the same with Matlab and others. Net-net: To me, simplified iPad apps are not a liability, it is actually a benefit .. and I suspect this is true for others as well.

i dont spend $2000 to do 80% of work.
besides ipad matlab is far less than 80% of desktop version.