Nothing is being held back.
The iPad form factor does not have the potential so may pretend that it does. It is perfectly suited to be the type of device that it already is.
There is no massive swath of users that are intereted in using iPad solely as a primary work device, and doing heavy work. People who buy iPads do so specifically to have a consumption device that they can maybe get some work done on. Some that have very light work needs get all their work done.
The laptop and desktop form factors continue to be the devices where work gets done, so the OS they run continues to reflect that.
iPad continues to be used as a Netflix device with light work duty, so the OS continues to reflect that.
It is not a chicken/egg scenario. It does not require Apple to "make it happen" for the flood gates to suddenly open. Apple already knows. They can see it in the usage patterns of the devices. And they have just enough foresight to know that you can never be truly productive with a touch device. It just isn't adequate for that.
For other reasons we can't comprehend or codify, this form factor is just not the major workhorse form factor. It is a toy more than a tool, even though it has some pretty great tools. And it always will be. AND, that is perfectly fine.
Yeah laptops and desktops are form factors optimized for productivity *for most people. The touch tablet form factor is fundamentally at a disadvantage. They’re better for portability, but bad for text entry, which is necessary for productivity for most people. Until we invent something better than keyboards, the only way to make tablets good at text entry is by physically turning them into a laptop, but it’s always going to be a compromised one. And touch is more intuitive and fun, but in a touch UI with larger targets, menu items have to be buried deeper, which requires more time to access. And touch requires more movement and holding up one’s arm which adds up to significant extra energy spent throughout a workday. One can add a mouse/trackpad and have a dual UI (no small feat), but again, the only way to make tablets better for productivity is by turning them into compromised laptops, and, if pushed far enough, it will eventually compromise the tablets as well.
So rather than long periods of productivity, tablets are optimized for shorter bursts of interaction, which makes them ideal side devices and consumption devices. Like you said, the software reflects that. Apple has been pushing iOS/iPadOS further, allowing more people to use iPads as their main productivity device. And Apple will always continue to add more functionality, but likely on an increasingly smaller scale, like the yearly updates of macOS. iPadOS seems to be entering maturity.
I’d also like to mention, though the main and obvious benefit to making the iPad more Mac-like seems to be that for those who use both devices, they get to have/carry just one device—but even that isn’t completely true. The Magic Keyboard is in essence a device itself, bulky and heavy, except with the major disadvantage of being a paperweight without an iPad attached. An ultrabook laptop and a light tablet (if one needs the tablet in addition) together would be only slightly bulkier/heavier, but would have the advantages of being non-compromised devices fully functional without each other, but also more functional together.
*There are cases though where the tablet form factor is necessary for productivity—when needing pen input (though this can sometimes be mitigated by old fashioned pen and paper and scanning), when needing the back camera (though this can sometimes be mitigated by using one’s phone camera and integration like Continuity), when needing to work mobile on one’s feet, or when needing a side computer. But Apple probably sees these as adequately covered by the iPad and other solutions, and/or too niche in the grander scheme of things to make Macs dedicated to them.
Note- I’m really only talking about the fundamental attributes of the tablet form factor, not circumstantial advantages of the iPad (eg. cellular data, better screen).
Apple wants us to buy both a MacBook and an iPad, so-- by design-- they make a worse MacBook and a worse iPad. This has worked well for them so far, but now they've made the iPad hardware too good, and they face real competition for once thanks to Microsoft in the Surface Pro + W11. I think over the next few years Apple will have no choice but concede on iPadOS, and to actually open it up.
Are you saying Apple could have made the original 2010 iPad hardware as good as the 2021 iPad Pro but purposely didn’t? You don’t think it took technological progress to get the iPad where it is now?
Because Apple never changed their minds. Just like they will never make a stylus or a big screen phone.
Oh. Wait.
Not saying Apple can’t change their minds, but your examples may not be the best. Apple still doesn’t make the stylus that they were referring to. And market pressures caused them to go back on making big phones, but so far we don’t see market pressures being at play here. There seems to be a lot of techies making noise online, but that doesn’t equate to loss of revenue.
Picked up an M1 iPad Pro to see the state of iPadOS. Verdict is Apple have intentionally made it worse and worse over time to force you to buy two devices, a Macbook and iPad, since it's more profitable than giving you one integrated device running MacOS. A $1100 iPad Pro can't keep an active SSH session in the background for more than 30 seconds with iPadOS/iOS 13+ that a $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W can do infinitely without issue. Down from 3 minutes with iOS 7+ and 10 minutes with iOS 5+.
I’m not familiar with your example. Do you have other examples of how Apple has been making ipadOS worse and worse? Apple has been adding more and more Mac-like functionality—split screen, files app, mouse support, external monitor support, etc.—so if anything it seems like they’re helping people not have to buy a Mac. If they were making the iPad worse and worse, wouldn’t they just be risking losing iPad sales? Who is forced to buy an iPad?
I know that I’m not buying an iPad until Apple really let iPadOS fly.
Until they do, For me, iPad still remains mostly an iPhone with a bigger canvas.
And it seems that the main reason that they’re holding iPad back, is because they’re migrating macOS to M1 and they don’t want to cannibalise the sales of their new products.
I simply cannot think of another valid reason as to why iPadOS is so constrained.
This has been said by others before, but the iPhone can also be seen as a tiny iPad, both devices very functional and the only required devices for
some people.
The reason why ipadOS cannot be a replacement for macOS for
everyone is that they have a different set of focuses and priorities. Mixing them would compromise one or both. Apple has already been adding a compromised Mac experience to the iPad in the form of various added features, only because thus far it’s been a tolerable compromised experience, and probably more importantly it hasn’t compromised the iPad experience significantly. But there has to be a point where adding Mac functionality would start to significantly compromise the iPad experience (eg. worse battery life, bulkier device, take up too much storage, slow down). It seems that’s the point that Apple is avoiding.
