iPad Pro The end of the iPad era for me, the dawn of M1 era

[subjonas]

Based on the Photoshop experience, I'd say it's not coming. Nor are Final Cut or Logic on the way. Pro
Apps have a complexity not consistent with a touch UI.

I agree that Touch UI is a major hurdle for big robust applications. Because buttons have to be big, it forces functions to get buried deep in submenus. Plus for applications that require precise movement like editing, the wiggle of a fingertip is another big hurdle. It requires much more time and effort zooming in and out to compensate, which is anti productive.

I personally feel like this is a very pessimistic view, but yes I agree most people would think this.

I think it might be okay to be a little more optimistic this time about the future of iPad especially now that the Macs are starting to transition to Silicon. This is unprecedented and hasn’t happened in the last 10 years. It may mean something will come soon, most likely through slow incremental updates.

iPadOS is a rebranded name but I don’t believe its just there for marketing - I believe that it’ll get there and changes in utility will slowly come.

Biggest change this year is Mac being crosscompatible with iPad apps. That alone will likely have a big impact.

Realistically this is the first year that Apple really pushed the laptop aspect of iPad when they released the Magic Keyboard. This already signals that changes will be coming and are in the works.

It’s fine to be optimistic, but to me nothing so far has really proven or even really signaled a major departure or acceleration of the iPad’s trajectory, nor a departure from the portability/simplicity-focused philosophy behind it. Apple has definitely been stretching the iPad to see how far it can go while staying within those philosophical bounds, but I think those bounds will always keep it from reaching the productivity level of the productivity-focused Mac.

Of course ultimately none of us can with any certainty where the iPad is going. A man walking south may be going to Antarctica, or he may just be walking south for now. The man can’t even say for certain where he will end up.

Never is a strong word. Touch is going to happen sooner or later. It’s inevitable.
There is already a generation growing up on touch. Once they are the ones building and using these devices, touch will, at worst, be an option. It may never become the only or primary method of input but it will be added eventually.

I really don’t know why people are opposed to it so strongly tbh. It’s only an input option. Unless what they are actually scared about is that once it’s an option, it will quickly become the only method of input - which just seems crazy. Every other device, now including iPad, has both.

I see it as possible but not inevitable. People these days grow up with both touch and arrow, and they may continue to see them as different input methods with different strengths and weaknesses, for different purposes.

Even having the option of touch comes with consequences. Especially on the hardware side. It adds cost and thickness and weight to the display. I’m not as sure about the software side, but at minimum it will depend heavily on how developers go about it.

I agree with you on that one. Any app that utilizes the pencil is worth it and extremely functional, but in every other use case I prefer to use the Magic Keyboard to navigate my iPad. I don’t touch the screen anymore unless I’m writing notes or drawing.

After having used the keyboard, I don’t know what the benefits of touch are without the Pencil. The iPad really is far better with a keyboard/trackpad. Even in gaming, most people would rather use a wireless controller. There’s not much you can do with touch.

I guess the benefits of a touchscreen like iPad is mostly its light weight. I find that the option of having a detachable keyboard is definitely a plus and I find it really convenient going back and forth between tablet mode and keyboard mode. Using it as a book, newspaper, drawing, scanning documents & 3D enviroments, Facetime, VS sending emails, browsing, typing long notes, having something plugged in while charging with the Magic Keyboard port, and other heavier tasks.

Yeah, touch is generally only best for quick and simple interactions, which is why it lends itself so well to consumption. It’s also best when keyboard+arrow is just not available (like when you’re walking around). But if one is sitting down and has a choice, I think most people prefer keyboard and arrow input for work because those inputs tend to be much more precise, and ergonomic/efficient for longer periods.

 

[rowspaxe]

Touch is going to happen sooner or later. It’s inevitable.

If touch were inevitable, after ten plus years we would be seeing momentum toward it, not away from
it. Yet productivity on the ipad is now all about all about trackpad/mouse support.

Unless what they are actually scared about is that once it’s an option, it will quickly become the only method of input - which just seems crazy. Every other device, now including iPad, has both.

No one scared of touch--it is widely embraced for simpler tasks and consumption, it is just not efficient
for complex apps. Even simple tasks like cut and paste are difficult with gestures,

 

[007p]

If touch were inevitable, after ten plus years we would be seeing momentum toward it, not away from
it. Yet productivity on the ipad is now all about all about trackpad/mouse support.

No one scared of touch--it is widely embraced for simpler tasks and consumption, it is just not efficient
for complex apps. Even simple tasks like cut and paste are difficult with gestures,

I would argue adding millions of iOS apps to M1 macs was a giant momentum toward it. If it isn’t, then I have no idea what you would class as ‘momentum towards touch’.

I never said touch would be the primary input option, or the preferred option for productivity / ‘pro’ apps. Just that it will happen. I stand by that 100%.

The only other alternative is to essentially completely lock out the next generation from using your OS as they will be immediately put off by the lack of flexibility in input. Even more so if MacOS is the only OS to ignore it. To be clear, I am not talking about next year, or even 5 years time. But I’m pretty confident if macOS is even still around in 10-20 years time, it will have some form of touch input. And no, maybe it isn’t ideal with what we call laptops today but there will be a device that makes use of it. Will it be useful for everyone’s use case? Of course not. But if someone wants to use it for an iOS app or to browse safari randomly, they will be able to.

Another way to look at this - people are stuck thinking of macOS as a desktop (mini/pro), all in one (iMac) or a MacBook. Then they struggle to see the point of adding touch.
As soon as you start thinking of different form factors, touch becomes not only more likely as an input option but almost weird not to include it.
Again, that doesn’t mean mouse/key board goes away, nor that the current lineup of form factors disappear. And in a lot of use cases it will still be preferred.

Exhibit A ?

touch on a Mac? sorry can't think of anything worse...thats what a tablet is for.

The only scenario I see where this doesn’t happen is where iOS takes over and macOS ceases to exist. In that scenario iOS becomes more open and more apps support keyboard/trackpad for productivity. Apple at this point could go either way. The iOS route is probably preferred to them but from a consumer point of view will take so much longer to mature. This has always been what people expected - the only thing that has changed is the attention that macOS has gotten recently and the incredibly slow development of iOS for more productivity/professional side of things.

I personally can’t see Apple, in the extreme long term, continuing with two OSes and devices that can only run one of those. Either devices can run some form of both, or there is only one OS. With macs being able to run iOS apps, this could be a hint of things to come. But, as originally thought, Mac apps might to some degree become useable on iOS/iPadOS at some point - this would probably reinforce the ‘iOS becoming dominant’ route again.

 

[The Game 161]

touch on a Mac? sorry can't think of anything worse...thats what a tablet is for.

 

[Shanghaichica]

touch on a Mac? sorry can't think of anything worse...thats what a tablet is for.

To be fair if you have basic needs, such as web browsing, reading, social media, videos and music etc, an iPad with the magic keyboard isn’t far away from a mac. I mean to be honest, apart for some very rare case things which I don’t know about until they come up I don’t use my iPad any differently to my Mac.

 

[Markgnyc2]

To be fair if you have basic needs, such as web browsing, reading, social media, videos and music etc, an iPad with the magic keyboard isn’t far away from a mac. I mean to be honest, apart for some very rare case things which I don’t know about until they come up I don’t use my iPad any differently to my Mac.

This exactly. And I will give you another example of why iPad OS isn't going away. Because of the 99% of the world that doesn't read Macrumors and get excited over everything Apple releases. I'll give you an example. My Dad (75 years old) wouldn't know what to do if you put a Mac in front of him. Wouldn't have a clue. And he would be scared to use it. You put an iPad and iPhone in front of him and he is web browsing, reading newspapers, Facebook, Facetiming us etc. This is what makes iPad OS great. And why it will never be going away. For me, I love my Mac on my desk and my iPad Air 4 with magic keyboard for when I am off my desk and doing anything else.

 

[Shanghaichica]

This exactly. And I will give you another example of why iPad OS isn't going away. Because of the 99% of the world that doesn't read Macrumors and get excited over everything Apple releases. I'll give you an example. My Dad (75 years old) wouldn't know what to do if you put a Mac in front of him. Wouldn't have a clue. And he would be scared to use it. You put an iPad and iPhone in front of him and he is web browsing, reading newspapers, Facebook, Facetiming us etc. This is what makes iPad OS great. And why it will never be going away. For me, I love my Mac on my desk and my iPad Air 4 with magic keyboard for when I am off my desk and doing anything else.

I have a colleague. She uses an iPhone. She got a MacBook Air. She ended up returning it as she basically could not get to grips with macOS. She kept complaint about not knowing how to do things. She has no problems using her iPhone.

 

[circatee]

To be fair if you have basic needs, such as web browsing, reading, social media, videos and music etc, an iPad with the magic keyboard isn’t far away from a mac. I mean to be honest, apart for some very rare case things which I don’t know about until they come up I don’t use my iPad any differently to my Mac.

I have to say, I concur somewhat. A few weeks ago, I started to research the Magic Keyboard, for my iPad Pro. Currently, I use a Smart Keyboard, but sometimes miss the option of keyboard lighting, and changing the screen angles a little.

The warranty and Apple Care has now expired on my iPad Pro, and at $300+ for the Magic Keyboard, I started to look into the MBA. And, of course, then Apple announced the MBA M1.
Anyway, a whole new level of research has now begun. I am leaning closer and closer to merely ordering an MBA M1.

Currently, I am using a friends MBA Early 2015, and with that, I have hardly touched my iPad Pro...

 

[Student of Life]

It seems and im just guessing here but we will see some variation of the M1 chip in future iPad Pros, it just makes too much sense. It saves on development cost, keeps things integrated and shows a differentiation for the iPhone and the regular iPad iPad Air to a different chip. Ideally the iPad Pro M1 will be made/calibrated for max battery life, ironically like a MacBook Air.

 

[rowspaxe]

It seems and im just guessing here but we will see some variation of the M1 chip in future iPad Pros,

Don't we already have a variant of the M1 chip in the iPad pros and iPad air? A beta version of the Mac
Mini distributed to M1 developers was equipped with the A12z chip.

 

[iPadProPerson]

The A series chip that is expected to ship in 2021 for iPads is supposed to be at or equal to the M1. With rumors swirling that Final Cut Pro and Logic will be available on iPadOS, I'm excited to see what Apple does.

iPadOS is still in early stages. I strongly believe Apple has reflected on user reviews and will improve on them next year.

Agreed. Final Cut, Xcode and the others were supposed to be in iPad OS 14 but COVID delayed it, I am hoping for iPad OS 15 or 14.7 cause another major desktop feature, the cursor came out in 13.7 so maybe a update later, another step towards becoming a hands down laptop replacement, even if you don’t use it as a tablet.

 

[iPadProPerson]

I just jumped into the bandwagon and cannot be happier. The ipad pro 2020 with the magic keyboard is an amazing computer, I get lots of what I need done on it... now with the macbook pro, my other systems are turning into linux servers for K8s clusters.

I use an iPad Pro 11 and it is so awesome, I forgot about the 5%

 

[Robbosan]

MBA M1 256gb = $1439AUD on sale v 12.9' iPad pr 256gb and MKB = $2408. Hard justifying another $1k when i already have a 2018 11" iPad.
My dilemma anyway tossing up a bigger screen.

 

[The Game 161]

MBA M1 256gb = $1439AUD on sale v 12.9' iPad pr 256gb and MKB = $2408. Hard justifying another $1k when i already have a 2018 11" iPad.
My dilemma anyway tossing up a bigger screen.

yeah I mean if you already have a MK for example for future purchases it's fine but if you want to buy say a new version plus the iPad you are looking at at least £1400 for say 256GB wifi only model while base air looking at £999

 

[The Game 161]

To be fair if you have basic needs, such as web browsing, reading, social media, videos and music etc, an iPad with the magic keyboard isn’t far away from a mac. I mean to be honest, apart for some very rare case things which I don’t know about until they come up I don’t use my iPad any differently to my Mac.

sure it certainly does a great Job for the basics I think there is a use case for both iPad and Mac if one can afford and justify both of course. for many people an iPad can do all the tasks one would require

 

[iPadProPerson]

MBA M1 256gb = $1439AUD on sale v 12.9' iPad pr 256gb and MKB = $2408. Hard justifying another $1k when i already have a 2018 11" iPad.
My dilemma anyway tossing up a bigger screen.

Yea I might get a m1

 

[rowspaxe]

sure it certainly does a great Job for the basics I think there is a use case for both iPad and Mac if one can afford and justify both of course. for many people an iPad can do all the tasks one would require

Look at it this way--the cost of a magic keyboard is 30% of a new MBA

 

[blaugrana69]

Sold my AMK, was never that convinced with it to be honest, didn’t find typing on it that great and that was the 12.9”. Money is going towards a M1 MBA, should be here in next few days. Keeping my iPad Pro for sofa use. MBA will be at my desk where, since Covid, I have been spending a lot of time.

 

[scupking]

I think an iPad 8 for bed time and reading news and the mba for the real work would be a great combination.

 

[Digitalguy]

This exactly. And I will give you another example of why iPad OS isn't going away. Because of the 99% of the world that doesn't read Macrumors and get excited over everything Apple releases. I'll give you an example. My Dad (75 years old) wouldn't know what to do if you put a Mac in front of him. Wouldn't have a clue. And he would be scared to use it. You put an iPad and iPhone in front of him and he is web browsing, reading newspapers, Facebook, Facetiming us etc. This is what makes iPad OS great. And why it will never be going away. For me, I love my Mac on my desk and my iPad Air 4 with magic keyboard for when I am off my desk and doing anything else.

Exactly... Just because some people here try to do everything with one device, it doesn't mean that's what's going to happen. IPads will continue to exist and Macs will continue to not have touch. There is a strong reason for that. It's what allows Apple to sell the most. And the vast majority of people are fine with that.
Touch exist on Windows virtually since the iPad, and people appreciate it, especially in convertible devices and devices with pen support. But some of these people still buy iPad and Android tablets, because it's not the same thing... And many of them have no tablet at all, beucase a smartphone and a laptop is all they need. For most people, a tablet is a nice to have, not something necessary like a smartphone is for virtually everyone and laptop is for a lot of people (students, freelancers, the millions of people who work from home in this period). Sure, tablets are used in the business environement too, but if we cconsider businesses too, desktops and laptops are the vast majority there.

 

[pdoherty]

The 2020 iPad Pro already competes with older Macbook Pros from a couple years ago (it's faster than my 2016 15" Macbook Pro...). Next years model will compete with the M1 Macbooks in terms of speed and performance. Yes the iPad has had quite a few years to mature, but iPadOS itself is still in its infancy. Keep in mind that iPadOS was first released in 2019, only a year ago.

Even if it may not mean getting the equivalent to a macOS on the iPad, I imagine there will be huge leaps with software in the next few years that'll fit more in line with the powerful hardware these devices carry. We're on the cusp of getting 8GB+ RAM on iPads as well. Hardware spec wise - it truly is a "monster touchscreen notebook/tablet".

iPad will continue to differentiate itself from the Mac, and at the same time it hasn't reached full maturity yet. It will come

I don’t get why it takes *years* for them to write software to use the hardware they’re producing. It’s a bit silly to ask your customers to keep buying your high-priced tablets on some vague hopes that ”someday” they’ll make it more useful.

 

[Digitalguy]

I don’t get why it takes *years* for them to write software to use the hardware they’re producing. It’s a bit silly to ask your customers to keep buying your high-priced tablets on some vague hopes that ”someday” they’ll make it more useful.

the software is already written since now MacOS and all Apple apps run on M1. And they have been running on Apple Silicon for a while now.... Again, I have said it a thousand times, people take the point of view of the customer, but it's Apple interest first, not the customer. If they make the iPad too close to a mac it will kill mac sales and viceversa... They want to sell both...And it works. People buy both and they buy the high priced iPads anyway. So why would Apple shoot themselves in the foot? They may throw a bone at best by bringing Final cut or logic to the ipad at some point, but that's it, it will be no MacOS.... it will stay iPadOS

 

[ericwn]

I don’t get why it takes *years* for them to write software to use the hardware they’re producing. It’s a bit silly to ask your customers to keep buying your high-priced tablets on some vague hopes that ”someday” they’ll make it more useful.

I’m pretty sure a big percentage of today’s buyers know very well what they are purchasing. They get the tools they want.

Good things take a while. The Mac had seen no big change in its OS since the introduction of OS X 20 years ago, the rest has been refinement in my opinion.

 

[crashnburn]

It sure would be nice to get a hybrid that excels at both tablet and desktop usage.

Given that both hardware platforms may have similar chips, I'd hope to see MacOS being ported / compatible to install on an iPPro. Maybe that's where its headed at some point in between?

iOS > iPadOS -iProOS- < MacOS

 

[crashnburn]

This is my main thinking behind the theory that Apple won’t merge the iPad and Mac lines soon. Apple benefits by having 2 separate devices that you can buy. If you have an iPad/Mac hybrid that does it all, it’s less money for Apple. I guess they could still sell Macs and iPads separately, alongside a hybrid, for those only want those certain experiences only, but idk ?‍♂️

I think its a matter of WHEN not IF they relent or bend towards the middle ground; because Hubris over a long time eventually does get punished.