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iPad Pro If we don't get Final Cut for the M1 iPad Pro at WWDC, I am closing the book on this experiment.
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While I agree with your comments across this thread, I do think it isn't quite fair to bring up the Chromebook since people pay a few hundred dollars for that, not $1000-$2400. The problem with the iPad Pro lineup is they aren't anymore capable than the $329 iPad. The people who buy a base iPad get the exact same experience just about across the board as the people who paid $2400 for the 2TB iPad Pro. Apple throwing in such incredible hardware in a 12.9" tablet with 16GB of RAM and 2TB of storage just to have a very restrictive and unintuitive software that is the current iPadOS is where much of the frustration lies. No ability to use proper external monitor support. A fairly weak Files app that doesn't give proper file management. No ability to open multiple apps in an intuitive way (floating windows style). A thunderbolt port less capable than the MacBook Air with the same processor. These are all areas that are low hanging fruit and yet Apple wants to convince us to spend up on the Pro models...for what? Those are features that could be added to the OS while still retaining the unique ability to use an Apple Pencil with a touch screen device. The Pro models feels very much held back intentionally when the hardware is quite literally on par with the new MacBook Pros, and every bit as capable from a processing perspective as the the M1 MacBook Air and Pro. The hard part is done-the hardware. Now fix the software to utilize the hardware.
As a side, I have been a fan and user of the iPad Pro since it came out and still have the 2015 iPad Pro 12.9, 2017 10.5 iPad Pro, 2018 12.9 iPad Pro, and my 2021 12.9 iPad Pro. It's one of my favorite devices from a hardware perspective especially when paired with the Magic Keyboard, but there's so much obvious improvement that could be done with the software that I'm no longer convinced that it makes sense to buy the Pro model. At this point there is literally no real reason to buy the Pro models.
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Just sell it I did
This argument doesn’t exist in the general computing world. Just when someone say iPad.
Again. Who cares? Acros all the computing lines in history, has this ever bing a thing? Nope. Just with the iPad.
Well, a lot of us who bought a $1000+ device care. Unless the software improves in a big way, the iPad Pro will become an ultra niche device. Which is unfortunate because of what it can be as an all around productivity device.
But why would you buy an expensive device if it doesn't do what you want or need it to do now? Buying on the come that something might happen in the future is risky, at best.
Because I want the 12.9" display and it was able to fulfill my needs. I didn't buy it on the speculation that better software would come. The iPad Pros have been my productivity device of choice since 2017 getting me through part of undergrad and medical school. But the limited software is now a hindrance. I find I use my M1 MacBook Air far more now, because of the software.
But it does what you bought it for and your unhappiness is that it doesn't do something different, something that was never promised?
Well, to answer your question, no it doesn’t fulfill my needs now. But that’s not a hardware limitation. That a a deliberate software limitation. It’s wild that those of us who think the iPad is capable of much more, with relative easy software fixes are perceived as unreasonable because we have frustrations about the device’s obvious software shortcomings. It’s also wild that a $2400 piece of hardware isn’t capable of anymore than a $329 piece of hardware, from the same company.
I only have the iPad Pro because I like larger screens and the good refresh rate. But yeah, other than that there is nothing "pro" about it. I thought it was over powered in 2018 even before the M1. Putting an M1 in it is just ridiculous.
M1 In an iPad wasn’t to make the iPad better. It was to increase the product line usage of the M1 and lower the unit cost of chip production for the laptops
It's impossible to make a pro app for 99 cents. That's why. A class action lawsuit should be started maybe.
You have more patience than I did. I lined up overnight to get the first iPad, and even cancelled my cell and have used iPads as my one & only communications devices for years. But Apple has no intention of cannibalizing Mac sales with iPad overlap. Every incentive they have is to differentiate just enough to justify selling you one of each, and they've been very careful to do exactly that every step of the way since day 1. They have all the tech and the power to take the iPad and the Mac into new territory as an integrated modular system, but that would require a lot of effort, and they're selling enough to not have to do take on that extra cost and market risk. So you will continue to get a large-ish ipod touch that fails to make use of its power or Ui possibilities, and a mac with powerful software but which can't effectively interface with a decent stylus or touch. And if you think that's a poor, half-baked implementation, try a modern MS Surface. Then pick up a 20 year old Motion Computing M1400 slate tablet pc running WinXP, and wonder how, with 20 years of modern work and trillions of dollars in capital, neither Apple nor Microsoft have been able to do as good of a job at tablet computing as that.
I don't think you're unreasonable - nothing wrong with having wishes about improvements that would really be good to have. I might disagree with the easy part - as I mentioned elsewhere, in my 50+ years doing s/w & h/w system architecture & implementation, I have too often seen "easy" as anything but.
I don’t believe that will be the case. Most people that buy/use iPads don’t have an illusion as to what is not, and use it for what it is. It seems most here complaining should take a closer look at MacBooks, and get some relief.
I’m right with you, except after a couple of weeks with the Air I gifted the iPad to my spouse and got a mini 6 for notes etc. She enjoys the iPP for work traveling (replaced a 2016 MacBook Air for her; work provides a MacBook Pro but she can’t use it for her side gigs). She has already noted several of the clunky limitations but as a travel-only device it’s a bit easier to deal with them.
I’m not a computer historian but have there been cases like this in history, where the same processor was used in two product lines but those product lines were so divergent in software capabilities?
And at this point it’s not even just software. I mean, add a magic keyboard and the only real hardware distinction is the MacBook Air has a 3.5mm jack and Touch ID while the iPP has no jack and Face ID.
I think that’s what gets the M1 iPad Pro the response that it does in this forum.
I don’t think you’ll be getting it this year.
I love my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro, and it’s the first iPad I’ve been able to make my main and only “computer.” I don’t regret going iPad only. I’ve always wanted to do it, and now I’ve been able to. But now that I’ve done it, I don’t want to do it anymore. I miss the utility and flexibility of macOS. The limitations of iPadOS grind on you over time. I’m hoping to get a 2021 16” MacBook Pro sometime soon.
I love my 2021 12.9” iPad Pro, and it’s the first iPad I’ve been able to make my main and only “computer.” I don’t regret going iPad only. I’ve always wanted to do it, and now I’ve been able to. But now that I’ve done it, I don’t want to do it anymore. I miss the utility and flexibility of macOS. The limitations of iPadOS grind on you over time. I’m hoping to get a 2021 16” MacBook Pro sometime soon.
Everyone says the reason Apple is crippling the device is to keep from encroaching on the Mac.
With the pricing of the iPad Pro making the iPad Pro a useless purchase cuts the other way. You might sell a $500 iPad Air and not a $2000 iPad Pro. You might get a Mac sale with it, but you might not considering people are holding onto Macs and traditional computers very long periods...
Conversely, if Apple played their cards right by intermixing the Mac and the iPad in an iPad Pro like everyone has been thinking they would. They'd probably increase sales of both devices... You'd have a lot of fresh development on the iPad front that would make more usage of their hardware increasing the chance a user would upgrade the device more often to avail themselves of hardware improvements. If they continue the walk across between the two platforms, like they have started with Universal Control, you can see increased iPad usage driving up Mac sales (as people get interested in new cross walking features that incentivizes them to upgrade from their 2015 MacBooks)...
I think the real reason isn't anything to do with cannibalization, but simply that Apple is struggling to envision how this all should work. They don't want to do what Microsoft has done with its Tablet/Laptop combination and make it all run MacOS and they don't want to end up in a weird place where iPadOS looks like MacOS, but lacks a ton of stuff. They also probably don't want you turning the device off to end up in MacOS or iPadOS. They have a complicated thing to sort of transition the space into. I respect the challenge they have. But they need to start innovating and trying something.
Especially if they do plan to offer a 2022 iPad Pro... Wireless charging isn't a feature useful enough to warrant an upgrade. An M2 would even be more laughable than the M1... What could come in a 2022 iPad Pro to make it a worthy upgrade?
