iPad Pro iPad has become quite useless and I regret purchasing it

[Beefbowl]

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).

The Ars article is also a touch misleading, because the data it’s using to support its claim actually shows that Chromebooks outsold Macs during 2020. A year when remote schooling became a Thing for no reason whatsoever that I can think of.

Looking at Chromebook sales in more recent years, they seem to have returned to pre-2020 levels, despite the sheer number of Ars commenters proudly proclaiming that the Year Of The Linux Desktop had come at last.

 

[KPOM]

The Ars article is also a touch misleading, because the data it’s using to support its claim actually shows that Chromebooks outsold Macs during 2020. A year when remote schooling became a Thing for no reason whatsoever that I can think of.

Looking at Chromebook sales in more recent years, they seem to have returned to pre-2020 levels, despite the sheer number of Ars commenters proudly proclaiming that the Year Of The Linux Desktop had come at last.

On top of that, Microsoft markets 365 as platform agnostic. They should try to make the iPadOS version more capable. And even the $329 9th gen iPad is as expensive as most chromebooks. Surely iPad owners are willing to pay the annual subscription fee for a “real” version of Office.

 

[sam_dean]

In 2018 I wish I bought a 2018 iPad 9.7". So if the screen cracks I can replace it with a brand new $329 current model.

iPad Pro screen replacement costs more than a iPad base model.

 

[Slartibart]

The Ars article is also a touch misleading, because the data it’s using to support its claim actually shows that Chromebooks outsold Macs during 2020. A year when remote schooling became a Thing for no reason whatsoever that I can think of.

Well, by total number of unit shipments Chromebooks seem to have outsold Mac units in 2020. (Even) if you add the number of Android tablets and iPad global shipments, »Linux kernel-based« devices have out sold Apple devices.

However to declare based on this “the year of the Linux desktop has come” seems like quite a stretch 🤪🤓

 

[sam_dean]

Well, by total number of unit shipments Chromebooks seem to have outsold Mac units in 2020. (Even) if you add the number of Android tablets and iPad global shipments, »Linux kernel-based« devices have out sold Apple devices.

However to declare based on this “the year of the Linux desktop has come” seems like quite a stretch 🤪🤓

Linux on the desktop has been a running joke earlier than 1999

Linux on the smartphone has more relevance.

 

[NastyMatt]

I used GSuite for about 7 years - it was great as it was platform agnostic - as long as I had a fully featured browser I could use GSuite - even better was to have Chrome Broswer and then I could carry on working where I left off on another device.

Switch over to M365 - the browser version of the apps is not even fully featured! I have to install the app to get everything. Collaboration is an after thought and Sharepoint integration into apps is a thought after the after thought. Plus, installed apps do not have the same features across platforms.

Granted M365 has more features but is not designed around user first, more, "how many features can we cram in" first.

 

[Queru]

As I was back-and-forth on this for a very long time, here’s one more person dissatisfied with iPad in the long term. I write this from m1 iPad Pro 12.9’ with MKB.

• In my case it’s too small for a laptop.
• Things I want to do sometimes are needlessly complicated and despite iPadOS updates it does not get better for me.
• Browsers are not desktop level despite what apple says. I still run into issues with some browser apps and need to go back to my old MacBook to be able to use them.
• As a tablet 12.9 is manageable, but given other issues at this point it feels like a chore to use it where it doesn’t do well neither as a laptop nor as a tablet (as my research before purchase lead me to believe).
• Despite couple of attempts I didn’t start any creative work with use of Apple Pencil. Should have started with paper after all…
• In the end my expensive experiment to go paperless failed, I still need most of books in paper, still prefer to write with keyboard instead of handwriting with Apple Pencil.

So yeah, too many problems and compromises to make it work. Not something I would expect to keep happening for such steep price thus I’m one more of those who regret purchasing it. My bad - should have waited longer, perhaps do more research before the purchase (and I think I even overdo it sometimes…). Yet I wanted to give it a try - and I failed.

I plan on buying MacBook Air 15’ after its release and reviews. I’ll probably get rid of the iPad as it’s not gonna find a proper use in my setup and will become detrimental. No longer do I trust that at next WWDC Apple will shine on us with real improvements to iPadOS. They had so many opportunities to do it.

 

[Lee_Bo]

As a photographer, I’m 50/50 iPad/MacBook Pro.

I do some photo editing in my iPad (Adobe suite) and to mass editing on my MBP.

Honestly, if I wasn’t doing photography, I probably wouldn’t have a MBP.

 

[alecgold]

I used GSuite for about 7 years - it was great as it was platform agnostic - as long as I had a fully featured browser I could use GSuite - even better was to have Chrome Broswer and then I could carry on working where I left off on another device.

Switch over to M365 - the browser version of the apps is not even fully featured! I have to install the app to get everything. Collaboration is an after thought and Sharepoint integration into apps is a thought after the after thought. Plus, installed apps do not have the same features across platforms.

Granted M365 has more features but is not designed around user first, more, "how many features can we cram in" first.

Oh, don’t start about sharepoint. If you have a onedrive account you can’t collaborate with a sharepoint account. MS365 is a mess, on the Mac and the iPad (I don’t have experience with the windows version)

 

[alecgold]

As I was back-and-forth on this for a very long time, here’s one more person dissatisfied with iPad in the long term. I write this from m1 iPad Pro 12.9’ with MKB.

• In my case it’s too small for a laptop.
• Things I want to do sometimes are needlessly complicated and despite iPadOS updates it does not get better for me.
• Browsers are not desktop level despite what apple says. I still run into issues with some browser apps and need to go back to my old MacBook to be able to use them.
• As a tablet 12.9 is manageable, but given other issues at this point it feels like a chore to use it where it doesn’t do well neither as a laptop nor as a tablet (as my research before purchase lead me to believe).
• Despite couple of attempts I didn’t start any creative work with use of Apple Pencil. Should have started with paper after all…
• In the end my expensive experiment to go paperless failed, I still need most of books in paper, still prefer to write with keyboard instead of handwriting with Apple Pencil.

So yeah, too many problems and compromises to make it work. Not something I would expect to keep happening for such steep price thus I’m one more of those who regret purchasing it. My bad - should have waited longer, perhaps do more research before the purchase (and I think I even overdo it sometimes…). Yet I wanted to give it a try - and I failed.

I plan on buying MacBook Air 15’ after its release and reviews. I’ll probably get rid of the iPad as it’s not gonna find a proper use in my setup and will become detrimental. No longer do I trust that at next WWDC Apple will shine on us with real improvements to iPadOS. They had so many opportunities to do it.

- 12.9” too small, use an external display perhaps? There is no 15” mba yet afaik and it might never come to light. A 16” mbp is much more expensive, heavier and bigger.
- Things are different on an iPad for sure. Some things are less easily done, others take a new routine, most are about the same with a keyboard and touchpad.
- browser incompatibility happens indeed. But it’s usually at old, badly designed/not well maintained sites. Who’s to blame?
- If a 12.9 is manageable, what will a 15” iPad be?
- not starting being creative is hardly the problem of an Apple Pencil…
- going 100% paperless can be hard, but even being 90% paperless can be really liberating. I write 80% with a keyboard, the last 20% it is really nice to have an iPad with pencil.
YMMV as they say, but it does not mean the iPad is to blame. It might be your work/external factors forcing you, it might be you are set in your routine, it might well be that the iPadOS isn’t developed enough. But that is not to say that the iPad isn’t a work horse. For many is has been a heavily used machine that is our work, income generator and time off.

 

[tyranne201]

For me, the only reason I don't replace my computer with an iPad is the lack of programming skills in the device. Aside from that, I could do everything on the iPad.

 

[Rafterman]

As I was back-and-forth on this for a very long time, here’s one more person dissatisfied with iPad in the long term. I write this from m1 iPad Pro 12.9’ with MKB.

• In my case it’s too small for a laptop.
• Things I want to do sometimes are needlessly complicated and despite iPadOS updates it does not get better for me.
• Browsers are not desktop level despite what apple says. I still run into issues with some browser apps and need to go back to my old MacBook to be able to use them.
• As a tablet 12.9 is manageable, but given other issues at this point it feels like a chore to use it where it doesn’t do well neither as a laptop nor as a tablet (as my research before purchase lead me to believe).
• Despite couple of attempts I didn’t start any creative work with use of Apple Pencil. Should have started with paper after all…
• In the end my expensive experiment to go paperless failed, I still need most of books in paper, still prefer to write with keyboard instead of handwriting with Apple Pencil.

So yeah, too many problems and compromises to make it work. Not something I would expect to keep happening for such steep price thus I’m one more of those who regret purchasing it. My bad - should have waited longer, perhaps do more research before the purchase (and I think I even overdo it sometimes…). Yet I wanted to give it a try - and I failed.

I plan on buying MacBook Air 15’ after its release and reviews. I’ll probably get rid of the iPad as it’s not gonna find a proper use in my setup and will become detrimental. No longer do I trust that at next WWDC Apple will shine on us with real improvements to iPadOS. They had so many opportunities to do it.

I felt the 12.9 is too bit and heavy to use as a tablet. The 11 works much better and can double as a netbook when needed, using a Magic Keyboard, In fact, the MK is a great dock for it, as you can power it via the side port on the MK. Magnets are a wonderful thing

I got the 1TB model to mimic my iPhone, I have both configured identically, with the same apps, screen layout, etc. No matter what one I pick up, it looks familiar.

That is what is nice about devices like this. They all have a different role, per person. You can make the device whatever you want it to be. Some people use it as a full computer, others as a consumption device, or like me, as an extension of my other devices.

 

[alecgold]

I felt the 12.9 is too bit and heavy to use as a tablet. The 11 works much better and can double as a netbook when needed, using a Magic Keyboard, In fact, the MK is a great dock for it, as you can power it via the side port on the MK. Magnets are a wonderful thing

I got the 1TB model to mimic my iPhone, I have both configured identically, with the same apps, screen layout, etc. No matter what one I pick up, it looks familiar.

That is what is nice about devices like this. They all have a different role, per person. You can make the device whatever you want it to be. Some people use it as a full computer, others as a consumption device, or like me, as an extension of my other devices.

Hear hear!!

 

[PegLegDreg]

I use my iPad more than my MacBook Air. All I do is Safari and YouTube really so the form factor is superb for that. If it did not work Apple would get rid of it.

 

[PegLegDreg]

It’s funny because Steve Job talked about how he did not want the iPad to used like a computer. Fast forward to today where Apple now pretends an IPad can be your next computer in there marketing.

Steve Jobs is not a sage like figure

 

[teh_hunterer]

The whole “iPad Pro is not pro because no Mac pro apps huh huh” is just a thoughtless content-creator derived take.

Most people I know who use Mac Pro Apps are not using an M1 or M2 MacBook Air, they are using something with a fan, more cores, more RAM, more GPU cores. Porting these apps to an M1 or M2 iPad would be simply irrelevant to them.

Similar, the whole criticism of the M1 iPad Pro for not carrying Apple’s pro apps is a meme right now. Content creators use FCP on their Mac Pros/Mac Studios/M1 Max Macbook Pros to produce their videos. Their demand for FCP on iPad - does not make logical sense. If you asked them to do their “pro workload“ on a Macbook Air they would whinge about thermal throttling and lack of cores. If Apple ported FCP to iPad, similarly content creators would try it and then trash it in a review.

Apple isn’t going to put the money in to make a port of FCP for iPadOS right now, because:
- there is no constituency to buy it
- there is no return on investment
- people who own FCP for MacOS would balk at paying again for it
- it would get negative reviews because it would not compare favourably to FCP on Macs with more power and MacOS’ better memory management.

The M1 and M2 still come/came in MacBook Pros, so the claim that FCP would be irrelevant because of the chip doesn't make any sense at all.

The claim people would whinge doesn't really make sense either when you consider how most everyone was impressed by how well these entry level chips did for pro workloads, even trouncing recent Intel MacBook Pros.

If they made it a cross platform purchase on the App Store, they could sell more iPads to people who already owned the software, and sell more software to people who were trying to make the iPad their primary device.

I'm not saying they will do it, or that they even should do it, but some of those reasons you're citing as to why they shouldn't don't really add up for me.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I love the flexibility taking my iPad from my Magic Keyboard (my main dock and charger), to my tri-fold folio, to using it naked (I have a skin on it) on the couch. I have 20 years worth of photos, videos, docs, etc on device AND the cloud, all on a package lighter than ANY Mac.

I LOVE IT.

Well not ANY Mac. The 11" iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is 2.34lbs and the 12" MacBook is 2lbs. The reason I bring this up is to point out the inherent weight inefficiency to the Magic Keyboard, as it has to add dead weight in order to balance the device. Apple could decide to make a MacBook that had a bigger screen and better keyboard, performance, speakers, battery etc, that weighed less than the smallest iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard.

They don't currently, but they absolutely could, and that would be an interesting shakeup to the dynamic.

 

[rui no onna]

If they made it a cross platform purchase on the App Store, they could sell more iPads to people who already owned the software, and sell more software to people who were trying to make the iPad their primary device.

I'm not saying they will do it, or that they even should do it, but some of those reasons you're citing as to why they shouldn't don't really add up for me.

How many additional licenses or iPad Pros would Apple sell versus the cost of revamping FCP, Logic, etc. for iPadOS complete with redesigned UI for touch interface? The ROI may not be worth it. The last statistics I saw showed FCP having 2.5 million users. That’s not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Now what I could see Apple doing is expanding/enhancing Stage Manager to support Mac Store apps as-is on iPadOS with a mouse/trackpad+keyboard requirement.

iPadOS isn’t there yet right now but Apple has slowly been adding the building blocks such as Stage Manager and swap file that could make it possible.

 

[teh_hunterer]

How many additional licenses or iPad Pros would Apple sell versus the cost of revamping FCP, Logic, etc. for iPadOS complete with redesigned UI for touch interface? The ROI may not be worth it. The last statistics I saw showed FCP having 2.5 million users. That’s not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.

Now what I could see Apple doing is expanding/enhancing Stage Manager to support Mac Store apps as-is on iPadOS with a mouse/trackpad+keyboard requirement.

iPadOS isn’t there yet right now but Apple has slowly been adding the building blocks such as Stage Manager and swap file that could make it possible.

That's what I was thinking. Currently you must have touch support in order for an app to be allowed on the app store. This means the iPad misses out on a vast array of apps because the developers don't want to redo their app to have a proper touch based interface, let alone an interface that intelligently adapts based on whether you're controlling it with touch, keyboard, mouse, gamepad, etc. There are a few great apps and games that do this, but they are few and far between in the grand scheme of things.

I get it, because it's a lot of effort. And I also get why Apple doesn't want to let such apps on to the App Store that are meant purely for non-touch. And I appreciate people's concerns that there would be too much confusion with people downloading apps that don't work unless they buy a mouse/keyboard or gamepad.

If Stage Manager became a point of distinction that let you run mouse/kb/gamepad-only apps, it would be fantastic. But I somehow doubt it will happen.

 

[Scott Baret]

Jumping in on this thread. I've owned two iPads (currently use one that's two years old and adopted the iPad 2 early on).

The iPad isn't something I use on a daily basis. I like having one, however, because it's not a terrible backup to a laptop and can supplement it at times. It's an okay-ish e-reader, an "in a pinch" machine for Word and Excel, an awful choice for PowerPoint, a great web browser, and an overall solid backup for most computing tasks--though I wouldn't want to use it full-time for anything other than browsing the web and maybe reading.

I don't regret buying it at all. The battery life is phenomenal, lasting many days (even my iPad 2 can still hold a good charge, though it usually just lives in my desk). I'm sure with an external keyboard I'd find it more satisfying for Word and Excel, but given that there's a MacBook Pro directly next to it on my desk, it's not somewhere I'd likely want to invest money right now.

The Apple Pencil was a bit of a gimmick; I do like it, but find it usually sits in my pen holder on my desk alongside the ballpoint pens and graphite pencils I use far more frequently. Often, it has zero charge on it because I can go weeks or months between uses of it, sometimes only getting it out after reminding myself that I have it. I can see how people who like to sketch a lot would enjoy it, and I do find the handwriting recognition to be good overall, but if I'm going to write, say, a shopping list, I'm probably going to use do it with a pen on one of the paper tablets on my desk.

The one thing that would make the iPad better, at least for me, would be some degree of mouse support.

 

[sparksd]

Jumping in on this thread. I've owned two iPads (currently use one that's two years old and adopted the iPad 2 early on).

The iPad isn't something I use on a daily basis. I like having one, however, because it's not a terrible backup to a laptop and can supplement it at times. It's an okay-ish e-reader, an "in a pinch" machine for Word and Excel, an awful choice for PowerPoint, a great web browser, and an overall solid backup for most computing tasks--though I wouldn't want to use it full-time for anything other than browsing the web and maybe reading.

I don't regret buying it at all. The battery life is phenomenal, lasting many days (even my iPad 2 can still hold a good charge, though it usually just lives in my desk). I'm sure with an external keyboard I'd find it more satisfying for Word and Excel, but given that there's a MacBook Pro directly next to it on my desk, it's not somewhere I'd likely want to invest money right now.

The Apple Pencil was a bit of a gimmick; I do like it, but find it usually sits in my pen holder on my desk alongside the ballpoint pens and graphite pencils I use far more frequently. Often, it has zero charge on it because I can go weeks or months between uses of it, sometimes only getting it out after reminding myself that I have it. I can see how people who like to sketch a lot would enjoy it, and I do find the handwriting recognition to be good overall, but if I'm going to write, say, a shopping list, I'm probably going to use do it with a pen on one of the paper tablets on my desk.

The one thing that would make the iPad better, at least for me, would be some degree of mouse support.

What additional mouse support are you looking for beyond what is already available?

 

[bondr006]

The one thing that would make the iPad better, at least for me, would be some degree of mouse support.

Here you go… for wired mouse. Same with a wireless usb mouse. Bluetooth is also supported.

 

[Username-already-in-use]

The M1 and M2 still come/came in MacBook Pros, so the claim that FCP would be irrelevant because of the chip doesn't make any sense at all.

The claim people would whinge doesn't really make sense either when you consider how most everyone was impressed by how well these entry level chips did for pro workloads, even trouncing recent Intel MacBook Pros.

If they made it a cross platform purchase on the App Store, they could sell more iPads to people who already owned the software, and sell more software to people who were trying to make the iPad their primary device.

I'm not saying they will do it, or that they even should do it, but some of those reasons you're citing as to why they shouldn't don't really add up for me.

You ignored my point about thermal throttling. The very same content creators slamming the MacBooks Air for thermal throttling (ie Max Tech et al) are the ones shouting the loudest for FCP for iPad. The 13” Macbooks Pro have fans and this is a key difference between these and the Air. The iPad Pro like the Air is a fanless computer.

How does this add up for you?

 

[Digitalguy]

Just by looking at the reactions to how DaVinci works on iPads it's evident that youtubers are enthusiastic and nobody is complaining, on the contrary they are amazed at how well it works even on M1, not only M2.
FCP on iPad does not make much financial sense for Apple, but people would be more than happy to have it, and would probably not even complain about having to pay again.
Personally I am happy to pay again my pro music apps when they are ported to iPad. Developers who make the effort need to be rewarded.

 

[rui no onna]

If Stage Manager became a point of distinction that let you run mouse/kb/gamepad-only apps, it would be fantastic. But I somehow doubt it will happen.

I dunno.

Apple’s already added a bunch of stuff I never thought they would: Files app, external USB storage support, mouse support, swap file, etc.