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iPad Pro The new iPad Pro is practically perfect. What could Apple do to improve it?
- Thread starter The Cockney Rebel
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This alone would make iPadOS usable to me.
I don’t get why it hasn’t happened already, you can run iPad apps on the Mac, and now you have iPhone mirroring so….why?
Apple has far greater control over revenue streams from application sales through the App Store on iPadOS than they do on the Mac. Once Macs are purchased the ongoing residual income for Apple from those Macs is limited since software can basically be purchased for Macs from external sources. The software companies that sell Mac software have their own ways of dealing with licensing on a per user or per machine basis.
I can't see Apple offering multiple user support and allowing all applications that all users have installed to be available on every profile. Doing so would potentially mean giving up some revenue on shared applications so they would likely only consider implementing multiple user profiles with some kind of control over available applications per user. This will inevitably result in increased headroom requirements on storage which may lead to higher prices for the hardware. Perhaps implementing this on Pro models only would be a way to do it since they have finally differentiated the Pro models from the others with respect to base storage capacity.
You make an interesting observation. I was not aware the radius on the M4 iPad is different from the M1/M2. I can't find pictures online comparing the two. Would you perhaps have a picture, or a link that shows the difference? TIA
Ad nauseam - thinner, lighter, better display… the last of which now becomes microLED or similar. (Energy efficiency, refresh rate, durability etc)
Personally I would love the original 9.7” size with modern advances. The mini is too small to be my nearly everything device and the 11” is just a bit too unwieldy. Won’t happen, unless the mini grows to that size… (from 8.3” to 9.7” is also likely a step too far…)
As Aka757 notes: iPadOS requires continued improvements. Personally I don’t require/want macOS on the iPad but I do want substantially more power/flexibility than it presently allows.
Regardless, I expect all of these things, to some level or other, to appear in the next few years. Perhaps I’ll finally keep an iPad for more than a single generation…
I really am pretty happy with this M4 iPad Pro, which is the first time… but Apple’s insistence that I obviously want their volume button behaviour, rather than the original way it behaved, remains aggravating…
Personally I would love the original 9.7” size with modern advances. The mini is too small to be my nearly everything device and the 11” is just a bit too unwieldy. Won’t happen, unless the mini grows to that size… (from 8.3” to 9.7” is also likely a step too far…)
As Aka757 notes: iPadOS requires continued improvements. Personally I don’t require/want macOS on the iPad but I do want substantially more power/flexibility than it presently allows.
Regardless, I expect all of these things, to some level or other, to appear in the next few years. Perhaps I’ll finally keep an iPad for more than a single generation…
I really am pretty happy with this M4 iPad Pro, which is the first time… but Apple’s insistence that I obviously want their volume button behaviour, rather than the original way it behaved, remains aggravating…
Switching from aluminum to titanium would make the iPad heavier, not lighter. The reason moving to titanium on the iPhone 15 Pro line made them lighter is because previous models used stainless steel.
A lighter iPad remains my main wish too though. I use my 11” as a tablet and, while the M4 dropped a little weight, I would still like it to be another 0.1 lb lighter. Given that the “regular sized” iPad has been fluctuating between 0.96 and 1.05 lbs for the last 11 years, I suspect Apple may be up against the limits of physics without doing something like switching to a plastic case (which won’t happen).
Also this.
You raise some important points here. I think each user profile would need to have its own apps, which Apple might like as they get to sell multiple copies. Storage need not be an issue as massive amounts of storage are close to free for Apple (seriously, it's amazing how little storage costs when purchased in massive bulk). Of course, that would hurt their GIGANTIC storage upsale prices, so they'd want one to offset the other. Maybe saving this feature for their more expensive iPads, with their huge margins, would be most palatable for them?
Edit: As governments around the world insist upon side loading, with no developer fees, the App Store will lose a lot of the current revenue stream, so that could certainly mix things up.
For the 13" iPad Pro the Swedish price before VAT is $1400 USD. The U.S. price is $1300 before sales taxes (which are lower in the U.S.). Factor in the fact that in Sweden you get an additional 1 year of warranty versus the standard 1 year in the U.S. and that essentially explains the price difference.
Maybe my numbers are off though.
The prices have become rather silly either way... tablets are much less capable overall than Macs, so I think the pricing should reflect that. But then again, Apple (and the rest) have all got away with raising phone prices to stratospheric levels in recent years 🤷🏼♂️
I’m coming from an 11” 2018 iPad Pro, and the speakers on my new iPad are much better.
Fuller, richer sound.
I own a macbook Pro and an Ipad Pro. My IPad Pro is used for 90% of the tasks I need. My MacBook Pro is ‘less capable’ in many areas because I can’t touch the screen, draw on it, take notes on it, etc. I feel each device each shine in different areas for different use cases.
Definitely another USB port or, dare I say it, bring back the 3.5 m headphone jack ha ha! Seriously, what I really want is more apps to support split screen multitasking. Stage manager is a bit too over the top for me, but I enjoy being able to split into two screens. Add pollen count and type to the weather information. Keep giving Siri more and more powers over iPad content, and yes, I have grandkids and no iPhone or camera, so keep making the back camera better and better. There. I said it.
in other words, pretty much all software.
in other words, pretty much all software.
Apple's iPhone prices have not risen nearly as fast as inflation. What Apple has done is introduced new higher-end models with higher prices. For example, the iPhone X was introduced 7 years ago at $1000 (almost $1300 in 2024). The iPhone 15 Pro is also $1000 but factoring in inflation, it is almost 30% less expensive. The iPhone 7 was released in 2016 at $650 (about $850 in 2024 dollars). The iPhone 15 is $800.
"tablets are much less capable overall than Macs, so I think the pricing should reflect that"
Capability is subjective, as is value. Capability is also not the only factor in price. Also, the original iPad was released in 2010 for $500, which was considerably less expensive than people were expecting by the way. That's about $720 in 2024. You can get the comparable base iPad for $350 in 2024, which is significantly less expensive. Let's say the original iPad is analogous to the iPad Air ($600); the Air is also considerably less expensive. The 11" iPad Pro is $900 but it's a different level of device.
Hopefully this shows that Apple has kept phone prices quite constant or even reduced them. What Apple has done is offer higher end models that you do not have to buy. Does Apple keep some features in the higher end models? Yes. If those are important you can buy the higher end models or buy a slightly older (used) higher end device.
I said overall because you can't draw on or take notes on the screen of a Mac. The ability to annotate docs my hand is the only thing I miss when using a Mac. It's file management can't be compared, nor the multitasking, nor the variety of complex software, hence my 'overall' comment.
Not necessarily. That entirely depends which models you look at, and which country you live in. My IPhone 15 PM cost way over 2x the cost I paid for an iPhone 6 Plus, for example. Apple make over double the profit from each 15PM as compared to each 6 Plus.
Component costs fell since the original iPad. I bought an iPad 3 for about $400 while on vacation in Thailand, in 2012. Despite the fall in component costs, today's base iPad isn't any cheaper, and is a fraction of the speed of the current top iPhone, vs the iPad 3 that was quicker than the then current top spec iPhone. The RAM and storage vs the current top spec iPhone are also miles apart. The current base iPad also has a cheaper and poorer screen than the iPad 3 from 12 years ago. 🤦♂️ They're both still primarily consumption devices- just that one was clearly 'good' vs phones of its era, while the other is clearly 'bad' in comparison to phones of its era.
I understand the point you are making here, but that doesn’t hold up given the ability to share apps or subscription under Family Plan.
I do this quite a lot with my family… it helps to save money that way. I recall when they implemented this feature… not too many devs were willing to add this to their apps. Who can blame them? As you mention.. it gives up some of their revenue. But nowadays, nearly all apps have this feature.