William Gallagher
Following reviews saying that iPadOS limitations mean the new iPad Pro can't easily replace a MacBook Pro, Apple insists the two devices are complementary.
In other words, buy both. The issue of iPadOS seemingly not being as capable as the hardware in the iPad Air and iPad Pro, was brought up by all reviews of the new version.
However, Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal got to press an Apple executive about how hampered the iPad Pro feels with iPadOS. And how even though in certain circumstances the new iPad Pro can actually out-perform a MacBook Pro, she says it can't be someone's sole computing device.
"We don't see them as competing devices. We see them as complementary devices," Tom Boger, Apple's vice president of iPad and Mac product marketing, told her.
Specifically, Boger says that in Apple's mind, the iPad "has always been a touch-first device." By contrast, the Mac in all its forms is for what he described as "indirect manipulation," that is working using accessories like a keyboard and trackpad.
Stern pressed Boger about whether Apple will ever change its mind about a touch-screen Mac in some form.
"Oh, I can't say we never change our mind," he replied. There have been rumors about a touchscreen Mac for years.
Boger won't be drawn further and wasn't pressed on a 2022 rumor — more likely wishful thinking — that Apple intended to put macOS onto iPads running the M2 processor.
Marko Zivkovic
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
44 Comments
Agreed. Computers and Tablets are definitely two different use cases. I use my ipad for somethings and I use my mac for other things. I find touch screens on a computer don't work for me from a workflow standpoint. Moving my arm from the keyboard to the screen and back just doesn't work for me. The tablet and the computer do not compete in the world that I live in and the work that I do. They could compete in other areas, but not mine.
I haven’t used a laptop in years. When the iPadPro updated the USB connection to Thunderbolt two years ago I had everything I needed for a fast light mobile photo lab. My complementary machines are a Mac Studio + Studio Display and whatever the current Pro version of a phone is out worth the automattic upgrade program.
It's frustrating when the question is when the Mac will get a touchscreen, or when the iPad can run macOS. I'd prefer to ask when iPadOS will get better multitasking, a better audio subsystem, a Terminal app, a VM app, a better filesystem app, a better virtual keyboard, a virtual trackpad, better text selection, etc. So, a touch first OS with more functionality.
Why buy one when you can buy two at twice the price?
The iPad wasn't created to replace laptops or smartphones. It was created to do certain types of tasks better than either of those platforms.