My iPad 2 has gotten to the point where it's not really usable anymore. I don't know if the hardware has decayed or the software has just gotten more demanding or both, but even with older apps it seems a lot slower than it used to. Sometimes I wonder if I should've stayed on an older version of iOS instead of upgrading.
I can't remember what iPad I have but I have the same problem. Its not useful for anything other than a SLOW sonos controller
On this argument about iPads being able to do everything a PC can do, it’s right there in the article:
In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks. They're going to have to be far better at doing some really important things. Better than the laptop. Better than the smartphone."
Jobs’ vision was that it would be better at some key tasks. Same, but different. Leading to better. Personally, the iPad Pro is my main portable device, because it is better at portability. I just wish it had a great file management system that plays well with MS servers. Then it would be perfect.
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs cannot accommodate.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs cannot accommodate.
I can agree with that, my iPad is a perfect device for browsing the internet, reading emails, communicating, taking notes and playing an occasional game.
But the communication department of Apple tells us another story. Apple wants us to believe that we can do almost anything with a iPad, even with its crippled file management.
For people who have more on their plate than the items described above, the iPad is not an ideal device. If I would like to use an iPad for serious business work, I would need to change my way of working in a less efficient way, which I am not prepared to do.
On this argument about iPads being able to do everything a PC can do, it’s right there in the article:
In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks. They're going to have to be far better at doing some really important things. Better than the laptop. Better than the smartphone."
Jobs’ vision was that it would be better at some key tasks. Same, but different. Leading to better. Personally, the iPad Pro is my main portable device, because it is better at portability. I just wish it had a great file management system that plays well with MS servers. Then it would be perfect.
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs cannot accommodate.
Well said. I knew the new iPad Pro 12.9” was different but until I ”test drove” it at home and out and about I was not sure if I was keeping or returning the 11” iPad Pro. Took a couple of days to realize that the new form factor of the 12.9” with Pencil 2 was special. With the continue advancements of iOS 12, its my new computer.
For a good chunk of my life, I was anti-Apple. I had always used Wintel systems and my first smartphone was an Android device (Droid X). I had an iPod and reluctantly ran iTunes on my Windows systems, but I felt I was forced to use an iPod. I had a 96MB (yes, MB, not GB) Rio 600 player that was old; so I upgraded to something from Creative, then something from Rio again, then Dell’s iPod competitor, then something from Archos. None of them had the device interface, interactivity, or PC software down. I picked up a 3G iPod as it still worked with MusicMatch. Then Apple released iTunes for Windows and that changed things. Still, I used Wintel systems and refused to buy anything Apple other than iPods. I upgraded to a 4G iPod touch and liked it. Then the iPad came out and, despite all the negative reviews and previews of it not being a touch OS X device, I had to have one.
I pre-ordered and picked it up on launch day from my local Apple Store. After using an iPod touch, I saw what things were like when they were simple. I didn’t have to worry about internet plug-ins, I didn’t have to worry if a media file would play or not, I didn’t have to worry about viruses (or any similar things), the first iPad worked well, and it was more than just a big iPod touch. I wasn’t sold on the idea until I saw Steve demo it (I had only heard about it online before I could make it back home and watch the video). I’ve been sold on the iPad ever since despite owning a few touchscreen Wintel systems and Surface products. iOS has also become a lot more of a desktop-like OS than when it was initially introduced and I’m glad Apple admitted they were wrong on one front: the stylus. Now, for me, the iPad is to a point where it can replace my PC usage 95% of the time. The only instances it can’t are when I’m encoding a video and using iTunes to host media content (I use library share on my always running Mac Mini to host my movie library for all three of my Apple TVs). That’s about it. I will gladly carry around my 11” iPad Pro and Apple Pencil over a 2.5lb+ system.
The article misses the point of the current state of iPad all together. Who really cares if Apple got iPad right? The market they were going after has already been conquered, saturated, and now declining. We are at 4 years of declining sales in this category that "Apple got right". It's time for the iPad to branch out and target other markets such as by adding mouse support and going after new productivity markets where it is not reaching at present.
The article misses the point of the current state of iPad all together. Who really cares if Apple got iPad right? The market they were going after has already been conquered, saturated, and now declining. We are at 4 years of declining sales in this category that "Apple got right". It's time for the iPad to branch out and target other markets such as by adding mouse support and going after new productivity markets where it is not reaching at present.
You're right that the tablet market and for that matter the iPad has been in decline for a few years, as has the desktop / laptop market. The smartphone has disrupted all of those markets. The only users that will buy PCs / Macs or tablets / iPads are those that need more computing capability than their smartphone provides. And outside of work, that market is becoming smaller.
the first iPad worked well, and it was more than just a big iPod touch. I wasn’t sold on the idea until I saw Steve demo it (I had only heard about it online before I could make it back home and watch the video). I’ve been sold on the iPad ever since despite owning a few touchscreen Wintel systems and Surface products. iOS has also become a lot more of a desktop-like OS than when it was initially introduced and I’m glad Apple admitted they were wrong on one front: the stylus.
If that's what you believe, then you still don't understand the difference in what was said about a stylus. Jobs never said all styli were bad and there would never be such a tool for iOS devices. He was referring to the devices of that Palm-era which actually *required* a stylus to operate the UI. A stylus to use the device instead of your finger. That's what he was referring to. The Apple Pencil is not such a device. It is a drawing and note-taking accessory. It is not required and does not ship with any device.
Apple never admitted to being wrong about an optional drawing stylus at all.
The article misses the point of the current state of iPad all together. Who really cares if Apple got iPad right? The market they were going after has already been conquered, saturated, and now declining. We are at 4 years of declining sales in this category that "Apple got right". It's time for the iPad to branch out and target other markets such as by adding mouse support and going after new productivity markets where it is not reaching at present.
Even if it were true that iPad revenue were declining, that in no way implies that Apple did not get tablets right. They surely did, and generate very large revenue from it. There's not a tablet market, there's an iPad market. They nailed it and it resonated with users in a big way. Will it sustain growth forever? I'm not sure that anything does.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
No, I do not want macOS on an iPad. I want a tablet to be as fully functional as possible. They are all computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, watches, but they have different input methods and their UX should be designed for their input methods. For the iPad, it should be touchscreen all the time, and the UI should be designed for touching with fingers or a stylus.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
It doesn’t mean it will become harder to use. It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users. It’s a great form factor capable of being the primary computing device for consumers, capable of replacing everything we do with paper and pencil. Run towards doing that.
The article misses the point of the current state of iPad all together. Who really cares if Apple got iPad right? The market they were going after has already been conquered, saturated, and now declining. We are at 4 years of declining sales in this category that "Apple got right". It's time for the iPad to branch out and target other markets such as by adding mouse support and going after new productivity markets where it is not reaching at present.
Even if it were true that iPad revenue were declining, that in no way implies that Apple did not get tablets right. They surely did, and generate very large revenue from it. There's not a tablet market, there's an iPad market. They nailed it and it resonated with users in a big way. Will it sustain growth forever? I'm not sure that anything does.
The iPad's, and most likely the iPhone's, success at this point won't be about sustaining growth forever but maintaining customer satisfaction and relevance so that it remains a profitable business to be in. The Mac is a great example. It never really hit high market share in the PC segment but it's been around for 35 years and Apple makes a lot of money off of making Macs.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
No, I do not want macOS on an iPad. I want a tablet to be as fully functional as possible. They are all computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, watches, but they have different input methods and their UX should be designed for their input methods. For the iPad, it should be touchscreen all the time, and the UI should be designed for touching with fingers or a stylus.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
It doesn’t mean it will become harder to use. It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users. It’s a great form factor capable of being the primary computing device for consumers, capable of replacing everything we do with paper and pencil. Run towards doing that.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
No, I do not want macOS on an iPad. […] They are all computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, watches, but they have different input methods and their UX should be designed for their input methods. For the iPad, it should be touchscreen all the time, and the UI should be designed for touching with fingers or a stylus.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. […]
And there's nothing wrong with wanting the iPad to do more. It will continue to do more each year and it will continue to add more features that are found on desktop OSes. The problem occurs with statements about having it do everything or be exactly like a desktop OS. That will not happen, nor should it happen. As previously stated, that's not even possible when comparing desktop OSes after several years.
I want a tablet to be as fully functional as possible. […] Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
And you think Apple doesn't? The problem is you think that those things mean the same to you as they do to Apple and everyone else. A Linux user could argue that Windows doesn't allow them to be fully functional and a Windows user that needs a specific app that is only created for that OS is needed for them to be fully functional… but these are specific use cases. You know damn well when you try to appeal to all people at once you get a product that fails nearly everyone, of not everyone.
It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users.
No it's not. It's Apple job to create the products that they feel serve their needs the best. If that means making macOS more streamlined to help retain or obtain Mac users then so be it. If that means making iOS more like Linx and offering a command line for "pros" such as yourself, then so be it, but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
No, I do not want macOS on an iPad. […] They are all computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, watches, but they have different input methods and their UX should be designed for their input methods. For the iPad, it should be touchscreen all the time, and the UI should be designed for touching with fingers or a stylus.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. […]
And there's nothing wrong with wanting the iPad to do more. It will continue to do more each year and it will continue to add more features that are found on desktop OSes. The problem occurs with statements about having it do everything or be exactly like a desktop OS. That will not happen, nor should it happen. As previously stated, that's not even possible when comparing desktop OSes after several years.
I want a tablet to be as fully functional as possible. […] Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
And you think Apple doesn't? The problem is you think that those things mean the same to you as they do to Apple and everyone else. A Linux user could argue that Windows doesn't allow them to be fully functional and a Windows user that needs a specific app that is only created for that OS is needed for them to be fully functional… but these are specific use cases. You know damn well when you try to appeal to all people at once you get a product that fails nearly everyone, of not everyone.
It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users.
No it's not. It's Apple job to create the products that they feel serve their needs the best. If that means making macOS more streamlined to help retain or obtain Mac users then so be it. If that means making iOS more like Linx and offering a command line for "pros" such as yourself, then so be it, but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!
"but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!"
Actually, it is yours and it is mine because that who ultimately makes their products for, the users in the market place. If users stop buying Apple products because it doesn't fit their needs / use cases / workflows then Apple slowly goes out of business. They're not infallible when it comes to the needs of the market place
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
No, I do not want macOS on an iPad. […] They are all computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, watches, but they have different input methods and their UX should be designed for their input methods. For the iPad, it should be touchscreen all the time, and the UI should be designed for touching with fingers or a stylus.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. […]
And there's nothing wrong with wanting the iPad to do more. It will continue to do more each year and it will continue to add more features that are found on desktop OSes. The problem occurs with statements about having it do everything or be exactly like a desktop OS. That will not happen, nor should it happen. As previously stated, that's not even possible when comparing desktop OSes after several years.
I want a tablet to be as fully functional as possible. […] Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
And you think Apple doesn't? The problem is you think that those things mean the same to you as they do to Apple and everyone else. A Linux user could argue that Windows doesn't allow them to be fully functional and a Windows user that needs a specific app that is only created for that OS is needed for them to be fully functional… but these are specific use cases. You know damn well when you try to appeal to all people at once you get a product that fails nearly everyone, of not everyone.
It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users.
No it's not. It's Apple job to create the products that they feel serve their needs the best. If that means making macOS more streamlined to help retain or obtain Mac users then so be it. If that means making iOS more like Linx and offering a command line for "pros" such as yourself, then so be it, but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!
"but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!"
Actually, it is yours and it is mine because that who ultimately makes their products for, the users in the market place. If users stop buying Apple products because it doesn't fit their needs / use cases / workflows then Apple slowly goes out of business. They're not infallible when it comes to the needs of the market place
Our choice is whether we buy or not. That’s it! We don’t make their business decisions for them. We don’t get to decide whether they make “real” machines for so-called pros or whether they focus on making “toys.” It’s when we start saying Apple should be catering to what we want because we’ve been using their products for x-years is when we start sounding like entitled pricks.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
I don't think that the market has decided from a content creation perspective...the majority of iPads are content consumption devices. I'd love to switch to an iPad Pro but I would need a mouse and a keyboard...and Xcode.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
So basically you want macOS on an iPad...that doesn't work and Apple has explained this many times. Seems like people just don't want to listen. Just look at the Surface Tablet. Yeah Microsoft is selling some and sales to go up sometimes, but as @Soli said, they don't have anywhere near the marketshare of iPad and that trend continues. So I think the market has decided what works best.
I think you guys are missing the point, iOS on iPad effectively makes it unusable for many tasks. Giving iPad more advanced capabilities does not turn it into a Mac. Frankly iPad and the stagnant nature of iOS is pretty much proof that innovation has left the house at Apple.
Have upgraded from iPad Air 1, to Air 2, to Pro10.5”, to Pro 11”. After a few days of using the 11” I felt I had to give the new 12.9” a go at home and out and about. In the store it still seemed “to large.” Three days later I returned the 11” and have not looked back. Hard to explain but it operates like an “ultimate” iPad with the feel of a computer. Everytime I pick it up to use you just know it is a special device and as iOS keeps maturing the best is yet to come.
In a lot of ways, perhaps Jobs vision or market segmentation for the iPad, a device that sits in between a smartphone and laptop, became more of a ball and chain than a computer for everyone. Hard to explain why they limited the functionality of iPads for so long, and still are going a snails pace.
They should have sprinted head long into having iPads do everything a computer do. instead of it being an iOS device for a 10” display, it should have been iPadOS, capable of doing everything a computer can do. Mind that I’m all in with using an iPad flat on a table like a piece paper. Hardware keyboard support is nice, but it shouldn’t be advertised with it.
It's easy to explain. iPads were never intended to function like computers, nor should they. Each has a different purpose and fit different use cases.
computer | kəmˈpyo͞odər | noun an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program. • a person who makes calculations, especially with a calculating machine.
There's no need to be obtuse. The common meaning of the word "computer" is not a phone or tablet, even though those devices literally fit within the dictionary meaning. A microwave fits the definition as well.
The article misses the point of the current state of iPad all together. Who really cares if Apple got iPad right? The market they were going after has already been conquered, saturated, and now declining. We are at 4 years of declining sales in this category that "Apple got right". It's time for the iPad to branch out and target other markets such as by adding mouse support and going after new productivity markets where it is not reaching at present.
Even if it were true that iPad revenue were declining, that in no way implies that Apple did not get tablets right. They surely did, and generate very large revenue from it. There's not a tablet market, there's an iPad market. They nailed it and it resonated with users in a big way. Will it sustain growth forever? I'm not sure that anything does.
Great post. The iPad got so many things so right that it created no incentive for the cloners to get any meaningful (profitable) market share. There's only so much you can do to dress up a slab of glass, so the functionality has to be near perfect. The many clones and cheap knock-offs may look like an iPad but they have no way to hide the fact that they are far inferior in most every way. All of the cloners have access to R&D labs and can read all of the opinioneering happening in online forums. They could easily add a mouse pointer, overlapping windows, full file system , and many of the so-called "missing features" that are supposedly crippling the iPad to their clones and eat Apple's lunch - can't they? Why haven't they?
Maybe Steve Jobs and the iPad team at Apple got it very right when they decided what functionally should be in the iPad - and what functionality should not be in the iPad. Steve knew how to say "no" even when many others were trying to convince him to say "yes." That's a good quality in a leader, and look what came of it.
Comments
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs cannot accommodate.
Apple never admitted to being wrong about an optional drawing stylus at all.
Even if it were true that iPad revenue were declining, that in no way implies that Apple did not get tablets right. They surely did, and generate very large revenue from it. There's not a tablet market, there's an iPad market. They nailed it and it resonated with users in a big way. Will it sustain growth forever? I'm not sure that anything does.
That it could have features like filesystem access (both internal and external), overlapping apps, virtual memory, programmability, terminal access, side loading, etc, doesn’t mean it is macOS on an iPad. It means the iPad has a lot of features that enable a lot of people to do things in a wider variety of ways, and is optimized for touchscreen usage. Let people do more, let them do what they want. Let it compute.
It doesn’t mean it will become harder to use. It’s Apple’s job to have the UI scale from novice users to expert users. It’s a great form factor capable of being the primary computing device for consumers, capable of replacing everything we do with paper and pencil. Run towards doing that.
And you think Apple doesn't? The problem is you think that those things mean the same to you as they do to Apple and everyone else. A Linux user could argue that Windows doesn't allow them to be fully functional and a Windows user that needs a specific app that is only created for that OS is needed for them to be fully functional… but these are specific use cases. You know damn well when you try to appeal to all people at once you get a product that fails nearly everyone, of not everyone.
No it's not. It's Apple job to create the products that they feel serve their needs the best. If that means making macOS more streamlined to help retain or obtain Mac users then so be it. If that means making iOS more like Linx and offering a command line for "pros" such as yourself, then so be it, but the choice is Apple's—not yours! Not mine!
Actually, it is yours and it is mine because that who ultimately makes their products for, the users in the market place. If users stop buying Apple products because it doesn't fit their needs / use cases / workflows then Apple slowly goes out of business. They're not infallible when it comes to the needs of the market place
There's no need to be obtuse. The common meaning of the word "computer" is not a phone or tablet, even though those devices literally fit within the dictionary meaning. A microwave fits the definition as well.