Again, I think Apple wants developers to stay on Macs and iPadOS will never be a developement platform, but can still become much more productive than now…
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iPad Pro macOS on iPad (Why It’s a Terrible Idea)
- Thread starter TheDailyApple
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It is less expensive than an iPad plus a MacBook, which is what many people have now.
What if…Apple introduces some kind of iPadPrOS OS, while keeping iPadOS for all other iPads, including the iPad Pros from 2020 and earlier? I doubt they’d choose to segment the iPad OS like that, but it does seem like the ‘21 iPad Pros deserve exclusives in terms of app features and/or the OS itself. We’ll see what they announce at the WWDC next month.
Very likely, I have said this many time, but I doubt they’ll introduce a new name for the OS.
I mostly agree with your analysis — it’s difficult to think how the iPad is going to have Xcode, FCP, etc. with touch input.
The thing is, what’s the point of an iPad if you have to change its main identity symbol in order to adapt to some use cases? Then it’s not an iPad, and a Mac will do it better. An iPad can have a slower workflow for some things, but it has other advantages inherent to the device such as being able to use it in almost any way, it’s funnier to use (direct input), more advanced sensors… if you remove all that, then it’s the worst of both worlds.
So I think they should stick to pursuing pro apps in “iPad mode”. Of course some things will take a lot of thinking, may not be as powerful as it’s counterpart or even won’t arrive at all. But then that’s an indicator that a Mac will be always better suited for that task, while iPad will excel at creative and new profesional use cases.
Couldn’t you say the exact same thing about the pencil? Or a game controller?
It just sounds like such a weird argument for a device that is suppose to be a computer. The input method should be dynamic and best suited for the task, not force someone to have multiple devices running the same hardware just to have a different input method.
It’s no different than saying a pc shouldn’t be allowed to runs games with a game controller or joystick, and in order to use that you have to build an entirely new pc made of the same parts with this one alteration. Ridiculous.
If people are happy to keep buying multiple devices that’s fine. I’m long past it, even more so now these things are running identical chips.
If Apple want to keep going this way I expect the iPad sales will quickly go the same way MacBook sales have, especially at the speed in which they are adding things to iPadOS. Sure it’s inevitable at any rate, just a disappointment to see such a great device held back by petty things like input, which again, should be best suited to the task not the device.
The idea I’ve proposed here before is to simply add Mac apps as icons on the home screen and when you run them they require you already have a mouse/trackpad and keyboard attached, then they run fullscreen, same as fullscreen iPad apps run in a window on a Mac.
This would just need the Mac supporting libraries/APIs stored on the iPad filesystem, to be invoked when such apps are launched.
Seems to me a huge missed opportunity if they don’t. For example, you could use iCloud to tie your iPad and your Mac desktop (regardless of proximity) and you could execute and test remotely. Hit a compile-and-run-on-Mac button, which runs the code remotely on a Mac and shows the output/result on your iPad screen.
Stuff like Pythonista is already things similar to this directly on iPads with python code execution.
For me they’re clearly totally different things. Apple is actively discouraging anyone from using custom input methods because having a direct touch-based UI provides a lot of advantages. If they allowed a “mouse mode”, it would be a worse tool than a Mac for those use cases. “Pro” features only make sense on the iPad if they have the advantages of an iPad.
Apple has always been good at this, having a clear sense of what a product is and isn’t, and not making catch-all products that in the end don’t provide a good experience. The Apple Pencil provides an experience no other device can match. That’s not the case for the mouse. It’s the worst of a computer and the worst of a tablet. And that’s reason why Tablet PCs have failed as tablets, and why the iPad has succeeded.
I agree but with a (big) exception. This is true for the iPad, but not for an external monitor. And external monitor is coming to iPad, that's a given (I would be surprised if it doesn't come with iPadOS 15, but it will come for sure at some point). At that point you do need a mouse or trackpad and there is nothing wrong about it...
Your iPad will still work as usual, but on the monitor you can do more things, including having a desktop interface or, some form of restricted MacOS version. It's just not on the iPad, which will only have the touch interface we know....
That’s not nearly the same thing. In 2006 the Mac was far behind Windows PCs in the market and in mindshare, with a mere sliver of the sales it enjoys today. The biggest barrier to Mac penetration was it’s inability to run Windows, which the majority of users still needed at that time.
So, Apple had a strategic business case for creating a way to boot windows on the Mac (made possible by the switch from PowerPC to Intel). This lead to Mac sales increasing dramatically.
There is no equivalent business case for Apple to take on the tremendous engineering effort and cost (as well as increased iPad complexity— see the MacObserver article) to appease a relative handful of geeks and others who think it would be “so cool!” to run MacOS on their iPad. It’s not a question of “allowing“ this to be done. Apple is a business, not a computer club.
Precisely. Apple does not need to make its own version of the Surface Pro, just like it didn’t need to make a Netbook.
Apple has said multiple times that they have no plans to merge the two. I think that is significant.
There are no plans to do so because they can’t do it yet and deliver an Apple quality product. That doesn’t mean they aren’t working on it.
I would be very surprised if there is not an iPad running macOS in some Apple lab, as well as a Mac running iOS/padOS.
I doubt we’ll see either machine. But someday there will be one OS that “combines” both. And Apple will be selling machines that run it.
Maybe they’ll call it AppleOS.
There are no plans to do so because they can’t do it yet and deliver an Apple quality product. That doesn’t mean they aren’t working on it.
I would be very surprised if there is not an iPad running macOS in some Apple lab, as well as a Mac running iOS/padOS.
I doubt we’ll see either machine. But someday there will be one OS that “combines” both. And Apple will be selling machines that run it.
Maybe they’ll call it AppleOS.
No. For the same reason Apple Glasses won’t be anything like Google Glasses.
Cheers.
I keep hearing in my head what Craig Federighi has said before while reading this whole thread:
"New is easy. Right, is hard."
2013 article from slashgear
I think that sums up how Apple prepare what's the best to make use the M1 potential on iPad Pro 2021.
"New is easy. Right, is hard."
2013 article from slashgear
I think that sums up how Apple prepare what's the best to make use the M1 potential on iPad Pro 2021.