True for you maybe but you don't/can't speak for others.
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iPad Pro iPad has become quite useless and I regret purchasing it
- Thread starter igauravarora
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True for you maybe but you don't/can't speak for others.
Very true. I bought a 12.9 IPP December, 2018. I use it all the time to keep dialysis related notes using Goodnotes. And for shopping lists and to use to watch Netflix while doing dialysis (I am right now as I type this). And so on. I have a Macbook Air and Pro. Those are for other applications and non dialysis related tasks,
I do have MS Office installed under Win 11 under Parallels > just don’t use it that much. Since taking medical retirement, my computing needs have changed.
Tom
My iPad Pro M1 got a lot more use when all I had was it and my iPhone 12 mini.
I’ve since bought a iPhone 14 Pro and Mac mini. The iPad has been used as a glorified secondary display for the Mac.
I regret buying the Mac mini M1, wish I sold the iPad Pro and bought a MacBook instead.
These devices will last me years though, so I won’t bother selling them now. And it’s kind of nice having an always on and always connected Mac in the house.
I’ve since bought a iPhone 14 Pro and Mac mini. The iPad has been used as a glorified secondary display for the Mac.
I regret buying the Mac mini M1, wish I sold the iPad Pro and bought a MacBook instead.
These devices will last me years though, so I won’t bother selling them now. And it’s kind of nice having an always on and always connected Mac in the house.
We use the iPad Pro 11" (2nd generation with Magic Keyboard and Pencil) in the living room as a MacBook replacement for browsing, email, photos, streaming video, reading eBooks, signing PDFs. Financial and work related tasks are on a desktop Mac. However we spend more screen time at home on our phones than other devices (for social media and communication, web browsing). if I ever have to replace the iPad, I'd get a cheaper model, as the Pro is overkill for our needs.
For writing, note taking, agenda planning, mind mapping and reading and annotating PDFs I use the reMarkable 2.
For writing, note taking, agenda planning, mind mapping and reading and annotating PDFs I use the reMarkable 2.
That’s kinda rich for a company that has made the “walled garden” it’s business model for years now!
Ever since my employer rolled out OneDrive for Business and enabled us to edit files on the fly using Microsoft 365 my iPad Air 5 has become my preferred device, particularly when traveling. Now if only Microsoft would give the 365 apps for iPad some love. Word and OneNote are fine, but Excel and PowerPoint are needlessly gimped. The cheapest iPad has an A13. The Air has an M1 and 8GB RAM. More than capable of running “real” Excel and PowerPoint. Apple sells more iPads than Macs so why MS doesn’t pay more attention to iPad puzzles me.
The iPad Air is the sweet spot for me. It has an M1 but is only $150 more than the 10th gen, and is often discounted. Paired with a Logitech Combo Touch or Apple Magic Keyboard it is still less than the base iPad Pro sans keyboard. It gets full Stage Manager support so works well with external displays.
My guess is that MS looks at the overall user base for 365 - primarily desktops and laptops - and sees the iPad as a very small niche where the ROI would be negligible. How many additional licenses would they sell after pouring effort into the iPad? I'd say that it would be a very small drop in a very large bucket.
Yep, this.
In terms of units, Apple sells more iPads than Macs. However, there are far more laptops and desktops in use compared to iPads and Macs combined. Also, how many iPad users would actually pay a $6.99-9.99/mo or $69.99-99.99/yr subscription for Office? I'm guessing not that many.
Microsoft is focusing more on online Office because that one is universal and can be used on Chromebooks, Android, iOS, Linux, etc.
Yeah, and given the cost-cutting that MS is doing - laying off 10,000 employees as part of it - I'd say the likelihood of any improvements for the iPadOS products is extremely remote. Just not worth it for them.
The world’s second-most popular desktop operating system isn’t macOS anymore
Chrome OS’s rise in market share has been swift and decisive.
arstechnica.com
But online Office isn’t secure enough for business use. And Chromebooks cater to the low end of the market. Read the ArsTechnica article. Those users are probably less likely to pay for Microsoft 365 than iPad users.
And it isn’t as if Microsoft doesn’t have a fully functional version of Office capable of running on an ARM platform. They have 2, for that matter (macOS and Windows on ARM).
I think a lot of this stems from the iPad media. "oh I can work off my iPad, it's amazing" yeah all you do all day is web browse, add text to a document, and text with your buddies, I wonder why it can do 99% of your work. Then they ask apple to push it and eat it up as if the desktop has been reinvented. iPad influencers, and Apple listening to them, and even worse than that, allowing fans to dictate the product, is the worst thing to happen to iPad. Ever. I know they never had direct control over the product, but you had to have been here the last 7yrs to get to where I am right now. You had to have heard all of the smug know-it-all bs from people who do little to no actual work about why the iPad is the future of computing. These people built themselves up as if they had vision, and were community stewards, when in fact, they are glorified consumers. Just had to get that off my chest, I still love the apple community, but that is something that is real.
Why would you say that these people are not doing any work? Could it possibly be that the work that they do is just more suited to an iPad? Or can be done just as easily on an iPad as a traditional computer? For my personal use an iPad more than suffices. For my work, an iPad wouldn’t be suitable as I need a traditional computer. However I wouldn’t say that I am doing ‘more’ or ‘actual work’ compared to those who can use an iPad for their work.
Yesterday morning I had a meeting to attend onsite, and I was trying to decide on iPad over MacBook. I was assuming we'd be in a nice conference room with good places to sit and take notes, so I decided on iPad. I am so happy I made that decision. The Apple Pencil definitely was handy for note taking, I didn't have to mess around with trying to get anything on the building's wifi (which was a struggle for everyone on laptops) because I had a 5G connection, and it was a lot lighter object to carry around while I was trying to figure out where I was supposed to be as well as when I was wandering around trying to find my car afterwards.
Again, this debate is silly. My phone or laptop could have done all of the above too, but when I started thinking of all the things I might want to do that morning, the iPad seemed like a better fit, and that was 100% correct in the end.
Very well said! As most of you know, I am a realtor that replaced my MBP with my iPad Pro back in Nov 2021. The iPad easily does all the real and actual work of my real estate and property management businesses. It just makes some people that don't know how to use an iPad for anything but consumption or play, feel better when they make bold, categorical claims about the iPad and their perceived ideas about its lack of productivity capabilities.
@John90976
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You have no clue as to whether these people you denigrate so do any "actual work" or not.
Funny you think I don’t do work when I’m on my iPad. For not working on my iPad I do get handsomely paid! 🎉
- When I read reports in pdf, it’s easier to sit down, annotate them with a pencil and contemplate what I’ve just read on an iPad.
- When I’m at a client and listen to him/her its less of a wall between us when the iPad lays down and I jot a short reminder every now and then. And when the needs arise, I flip up the iPad and type away on the definitely “meh” folio keyboard. But it does the job.
- When replying to emails or doing some admin on a website it doesn’t matter if I’m on an iPad or a MBP.
- when I’m at a flex work office I take a usb-screen, Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and the iPad becomes almost a laptop/desktop since 16.3. The MBP14 would be a bit better.
- when working several excel sheets, pdf-document sources and work in a word document, my mbp 14 with two 27”4K monitors makes me so much more productive.
I believe the saying is horses for courses. But since 16.3 appeared on my M1 iPad Pro the external screen, stage manager and an external keyboard and trackpad, it all made my iPad so much more useful.
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There’s a subset of Mac/PC laptop users who feel that the iPad is threatening the longevity of their form factor of choice. There’s a similar pattern in the Apple Silicon Mac threads where PC users feel they have to come here to scream into the void because they feel Apple Silicon is threatening their ecosystem of choice. (I believe this is an actual threat, but that’s for another thread on another day.)
Best to just let them be, though I don’t always follow my own advice. They type and type and type and then eventually wear themselves out. 😂😂
I am standing at my desk right now and my iPad is currently functioning as a TV to watch the AFC playoff game. Yes, I have a TV about 15 feet away, but if/when I want to go to another room, the iPad is going with me. I don't think TVs are considered toys, but I also don't understand all of the people saying the iPad isn't a great and useful device. iPads are great.
Doing the same! 12.9 M1 iPP - great screen.
I appreciate all of the direct replies illustrating the vast usefulness of the iPad. I heavily used iPad from 2014-2021 for high school and college, and it is still my go-to device for pdf markups, budgeting, and note-taking. My 2018 12.9" served beautifully as my laptop until apple silicon made MacBooks good again haha. My issue was with iPad influencers whose whole "job" is writing about and talking about the iPad to the point of it being detrimental to the product. They are the problem with iPad, not the iPad itself or all of the wonderful folks using it in awesome and creative ways.
It's a problem all over Youtube and other platforms. People try to come off like they're tech advisors when in fact they're just pushing products they're paid to talk about. They make a heck of a lot more $ than I do so ... <shrug>. lol. There is a lot of noise out there.
I'll watch purely informational how-to videos but skip the reviewers - I prefer to try out and then judge for myself the subjective value of a product.