Apple developing iPad Pro with glass back and MagSafe, home button-less iPad mini

AppleInsider · June 4, 2021 6:36AM

Apple's next-generation iPad Pro might be the company's first tablet to support wireless charging, a feat that could be accomplished by adopting a "glass sandwich" design. A redesigned iPad mini is also expected to debut later this year.

Citing sources familiar with Apple's plans, Bloomberg on Thursday reports the company is working to integrate wireless charging capabilities into its tablets, a product line that saw explosive growth over the past year as the coronavirus pandemic spurred a work from home boom.

To facilitate wireless charging, Apple is reportedly mulling a glass back design for 2022 that would bring iPad Pro's aesthetics in line with recent iPhone models. A magnetic wireless charging system similar to MagSafe is also in the works, though -- like MagSafe on iPhone -- the system is unlikely to deliver charge rates that rival a cabled setup.

Specifics of the solution went unreported, but Apple could be experimenting with high output wireless power technology that trumps MagSafe's 15W fast charge limit. The company in 2017 acquired a New Zealand startup called PowerbyProxi, which marketed a product capable of delivering 100 watts of wireless power with a 65mm coil. As it stands, iPad's capacious batteries are juiced up via USB-C or Lightning. The report notes that Thunderbolt will continue to see use on next-generation iPad Pro models.

Apple is also developing so-called reverse charging, or "bilateral" charging, capabilities for its top-end tablet hardware.

Initially rumored to debut on iPhone in 2019, reverse charging would enable users to charge a second device, like AirPods or perhaps an iPhone, using iPad Pro's internal charging coils. It was previously reported that both iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 include the circuitry requisite to support such a feature, though it was never activated.

Interestingly, Bloomberg suggests reverse charging on iPad Pro might be compatible with Apple Watch, a device that uses a proprietary charging protocol instead of Qi-based technology employed by iPhone, AirPods and other Apple devices.

The publication tempers expectations by cautioning that Apple's iPad Pro plans could change or be nixed before an expected launch in 2022.

As for iPad mini, the report claims Apple is testing a redesign that incorporates narrow display borders and removes the tablet's home button in favor of an "all-screen" configuration. The company could unveil the device alongside a thinner education-focused iPad as early as this year.

The rumor matches predictions from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who in a report published more than a year ago forecast the 2021 launch of a home button-less iPad mini. Kuo expects the diminutive tablet to sport a display measuring between 8.5 inches and 9 inches on the diagonal, specifications echoed in supply chain rumblings in January.

Follow all of WWDC 2021 with comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details on new launches and updates.

cpsro · June 4, 2021 7:31AM

All the magnets used for MagSafe, magic keyboard and covers makes the devices and accessories heavy. Too heavy IMHO.

doozydozen · June 4, 2021 8:44AM

cpsro said:

All the magnets used for MagSafe, magic keyboard and covers makes the devices and accessories heavy. Too heavy IMHO.

MagSafe accessories and Smart Covers/Folios are not heavy. As for the Magic Keyboard, it’s hefty weight is not from magnets but a necessary design decision to counterbalance the weight of the iPad Pro so it does not tip over. If the the Magic Keyboard was any lighter it could not keep the iPad Pro upright. It’s as simple as that

iloveapplegear · June 4, 2021 12:11PM

Been waiting for button less iPad mini for several years..

spice-boy · June 4, 2021 2:15PM

iPads will get a lot heavier and dropping them will make them a lot more expensive to repair, all this for so called "wireless charging"?

mplsp · June 4, 2021 2:33PM

spice-boy said:

iPads will get a lot heavier and dropping them will make them a lot more expensive to repair, all this for so called "wireless charging"?

Yeah, that’s my thought. The battery sizes used for iPads are also quite large, so ‘wireless’ charging would need to improve by an order of magnitude to make it viable. Then there’s all the wasted energy….

I still can’t understand what’s wrong with just plugging it in.

cloudtalkin · June 4, 2021 3:56PM

MplsP said:

spice-boy said:

iPads will get a lot heavier and dropping them will make them a lot more expensive to repair, all this for so called "wireless charging"?

Yeah, that’s my thought. The battery sizes used for iPads are also quite large, so ‘wireless’ charging would need to improve by an order of magnitude to make it viable. Then there’s all the wasted energy….

I still can’t understand what’s wrong with just plugging it in.

Wireless charging is already an "order of magnitude" beyond what Apple makes available to customers. Has been for a pretty good while now. Multiple vendors offer higher watt fast charging. Wireless charging is available to charge at a rate up to 65W. Is it not refined enough for Apple's satisfaction? I don't know. Regardless of their reasoning for not including it thus far, the fast charging tech is already available. Could be as simple as Apple wanting to ensure high-watt fast charging wouldn't cause any heretofore unforeseen issues with their devices. Again, Idk but the technical capability is here.
https://www.engadget.com/oppo-125w-flash-charge-65w-airvooc-50w-mini-supervooc-110w-073056359.html

What's wrong with just plugging it in? Absolutely nothing. Plugging it in is a perfectly viable option. Wireless charging is also a perfectly viable option. Option being the key word. Wired and wireless charging aren't binary decisions. Both can and do exist simultaneously.

edited June 2021

jd_in_sb · June 4, 2021 4:11PM

Now we can crack both sides!

daalseth · June 4, 2021 4:51PM

I’m eyeing a 2021 M1 iPP this fall. For an instant there was a flash of fear when I thought I might want to wait until a year from now. But no, wireless charging and MagSafe are cool but not deal breakers for me. I’m still on track for an iPP for Xmas.

(Here’s hoping Apple releases some huge update to padOS next week that fixes every last complaint.)

japhey · June 4, 2021 5:04PM

DAalseth said:

I’m eyeing a 2021 M1 iPP this fall. For an instant there was a flash of fear when I thought I might want to wait until a year from now. But no, wireless charging and MagSafe are cool but not deal breakers for me. I’m still on track for an iPP for Xmas.

(Here’s hoping Apple releases some huge update to padOS next week that fixes every last complaint.)

I’m trying to imagine a world where Apple releases something, anything which leaves nothing for its fans to complain about. I cannot. This fantasy world will never exist. Ever.

Points for the positivity, though.

edited June 2021

williamlondon · June 4, 2021 5:14PM

jd_in_sb said:

Now we can crack both sides!

Or you can care for your devices and crack none, just sayin'

dewme · June 4, 2021 8:27PM

I'm starting to worry that Apple is slowly destroying the iPad, or at least the iPad as presented by Steve Jobs while lounging on a couch holding a magical portal into an information, entertainment, and self enrichment universe. What made the iPad so special was that it wasn't just another personal computer dragging along all the baggage and claptrap that personal computers cannot seem to distance themselves from. It was just a slab-o-glass, no keyboard, no mouse, no separate monitor, no external paraphernalia to drag around or to clutter up your life.

You'd never see anyone selling "iPad Desks," "iPad Hutch," much less designating a chunk or real estate in their homes as the "iPad Room." The iPad was just something you cozied up with on the couch, or on a deck chair, in the passenger seat of a plane or train, like you would with a good book or sketch pad. You could throw it in your backpack or overnight bag to bring along as a personal companion or to keep up with your journal when you were away from your home or office. Nobody really cared about what was under the hood as long as it kept serving your personal needs. If you needed more than what the iPad delivered, you still had your trusty old personal computer, probably sitting on a special computer desk in the corner of the family room with a rat's nest of wires and peripherals dangling from it.

Look where the iPad is today. There must have been some engineers at Apple who felt personally diminished when they were accused of building a "content consumption device" as if doing that, even when done better than anyone else in the history of personal computing had ever done it so elegantly and effectively for couch dwellers, was actually a bad thing. Real men produce, real men generate content, real men type on keyboards and move cursors using mice and trackpads. Real men have fully preemptive multitasking overlapping window based operating systems on all of their real computing devices.

The claptrap of personal computers from days gone by has caught up and surrounded the iPad. The iPad needs a desk, keyboard, and pointing device to fulfill its manly "content production" tasks. We now do care about what's under the hood and have to worry about whether the iPad we buy is up to the tasks that we are asking of it. Worse yet, we see all of the horsepower the newest iPad has and wonder why not enough developers are developing OS versions or apps to seriously challenge all of those horses. I paid for all that power and I expect it to used. Not sure how or why, but just throw in some complexity until the little bugger begs for mercy.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I do sincerely believe that Apple has reached a point where they don't really know where to go with the iPad. They have shown us that their hardware designers can do amazing things in tiny spaces. They have created a gap between the iPad and its nearest competitor that causes the competition to simply throw up their arms and say "I give up." But they they've also moved the iPad further and further away from its "Steve on the Couch" origins and the raw vision of the iPad as the ultimate personal portal into the universe of consumable content and media.

Perhaps it time that the base iPad and iPad mini be seen as the only "True iPads" in the sense of the iPad that Steve Jobs presented to the world. All other iPads, or iPad Pros, or ProPads, really should really be seen as hybrid computing devices that exist somewhere in the personal computing spectrum between the true iPads and MacBook Pros, you know, in the same vicinity as Microsoft's Surface hybrid, but done much better and as only Apple can do best. I simply hope that the True iPad vision does not die.

Respect the couch.

edited June 2021

robaba · June 4, 2021 8:54PM

What we are seeing is the bifurcation of the iPad between consumer and Pro models. The problem, as I see it, is the confusion created by Apple between “pro” and “content creator”. The latter requires all the gewgaws and dongles, while the former just requires greater accuracy, capacity, and clarity.

dysamoria · June 4, 2021 9:22PM

dewme said:

I'm starting to worry that Apple is slowly destroying the iPad, or at least the iPad as presented by Steve Jobs while lounging on a couch holding a magical portal into an information, entertainment, and self enrichment universe. What made the iPad so special was that it wasn't just another personal computer dragging along all the baggage and claptrap that personal computers cannot seem to distance themselves from. It was just a slab-o-glass, no keyboard, no mouse, no separate monitor, no external paraphernalia to drag around or to clutter up your life.

You'd never see anyone selling "iPad Desks," "iPad Hutch," much less designating a chunk or real estate in their homes as the "iPad Room." The iPad was just something you cozied up with on the couch, or on a deck chair, in the passenger seat of a plane or train, like you would with a good book or sketch pad. You could throw it in your backpack or overnight bag to bring along as a personal companion or to keep up with your journal when you were away from your home or office. Nobody really cared about what was under the hood as long as it kept serving your personal needs. If you needed more than what the iPad delivered, you still had your trusty old personal computer, probably sitting on a special computer desk in the corner of the family room with a rat's nest of wires and peripherals dangling from it.

Look where the iPad is today. There must have been some engineers at Apple who felt personally diminished when they were accused of building a "content consumption device" as if doing that, even when done better than anyone else in the history of personal computing had ever done it so elegantly and effectively for couch dwellers, was actually a bad thing. Real men produce, real men generate content, real men type on keyboards and move cursors using mice and trackpads. Real men have fully preemptive multitasking overlapping window based operating systems on all of their real computing devices.

The claptrap of personal computers from days gone by has caught up and surrounded the iPad. The iPad needs a desk, keyboard, and pointing device to fulfill its manly "content production" tasks. We now do care about what's under the hood and have to worry about whether the iPad we buy is up to the tasks that we are asking of it. Worse yet, we see all of the horsepower the newest iPad has and wonder why not enough developers are developing OS versions or apps to seriously challenge all of those horses. I paid for all that power and I expect it to used. Not sure how or why, but just throw in some complexity until the little bugger begs for mercy.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I do sincerely believe that Apple has reached a point where they don't really know where to go with the iPad. They have shown us that their hardware designers can do amazing things in tiny spaces. They have created a gap between the iPad and its nearest competitor that causes the competition to simply throw up their arms and say "I give up." But they they've also moved the iPad further and further away from its "Steve on the Couch" origins and the raw vision of the iPad as the ultimate personal portal into the universe of consumable content and media.

Perhaps it time that the base iPad and iPad mini be seen as the only "True iPads" in the sense of the iPad that Steve Jobs presented to the world. All other iPads, or iPad Pros, or ProPads, really should really be seen as hybrid computing devices that exist somewhere in the personal computing spectrum between the true iPads and MacBook Pros, you know, in the same vicinity as Microsoft's Surface hybrid, but done much better and as only Apple can do best. I simply hope that the True iPad vision does not die.

Respect the couch.

You’re forgetting that Apple need to somehow convince people that they need to buy the same product again, every few years. Feature creep & numbers to compare are all a part of pushing people to buy the same product again next year or the year after that. If adding features that a certain segment of the population believe should be there will provide this function, then they do it.

That said, typing on screen is absolutely abysmal on an iPad Pro. It implies that you can type like as on a physical keyboard, which is absolutely false. It sucks. Using a physical keyboard makes my iPad Pro way more useful than without.

Also, the “vision” of simplicity and ease of use died with iOS 7 in 2013, and every followup since. The removal of physical buttons from the hardware, the piles of not-discoverable and sometimes conflicting gestures, the arbitrary addition & removal of features/functions (3D touch), the loss of distinction between controls & labels...

The Apple of Steve Jobs went away long ago. Today’s Apple is the apple of Wall Street. That they’re not quite as horrible as the rest of the industry is what keeps me hanging on.

9secondkox2 · June 4, 2021 9:52PM

Available mid 2022.

mattinoz · June 4, 2021 11:06PM

dewme said:

I'm starting to worry that Apple is slowly destroying the iPad, or at least the iPad as presented by Steve Jobs while lounging on a couch holding a magical portal into an information, entertainment, and self enrichment universe. What made the iPad so special was that it wasn't just another personal computer dragging along all the baggage and claptrap that personal computers cannot seem to distance themselves from. It was just a slab-o-glass, no keyboard, no mouse, no separate monitor, no external paraphernalia to drag around or to clutter up your life.

You'd never see anyone selling "iPad Desks," "iPad Hutch," much less designating a chunk or real estate in their homes as the "iPad Room." The iPad was just something you cozied up with on the couch, or on a deck chair, in the passenger seat of a plane or train, like you would with a good book or sketch pad. You could throw it in your backpack or overnight bag to bring along as a personal companion or to keep up with your journal when you were away from your home or office. Nobody really cared about what was under the hood as long as it kept serving your personal needs. If you needed more than what the iPad delivered, you still had your trusty old personal computer, probably sitting on a special computer desk in the corner of the family room with a rat's nest of wires and peripherals dangling from it.

Look where the iPad is today. There must have been some engineers at Apple who felt personally diminished when they were accused of building a "content consumption device" as if doing that, even when done better than anyone else in the history of personal computing had ever done it so elegantly and effectively for couch dwellers, was actually a bad thing. Real men produce, real men generate content, real men type on keyboards and move cursors using mice and trackpads. Real men have fully preemptive multitasking overlapping window based operating systems on all of their real computing devices.

The claptrap of personal computers from days gone by has caught up and surrounded the iPad. The iPad needs a desk, keyboard, and pointing device to fulfill its manly "content production" tasks. We now do care about what's under the hood and have to worry about whether the iPad we buy is up to the tasks that we are asking of it. Worse yet, we see all of the horsepower the newest iPad has and wonder why not enough developers are developing OS versions or apps to seriously challenge all of those horses. I paid for all that power and I expect it to used. Not sure how or why, but just throw in some complexity until the little bugger begs for mercy.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I do sincerely believe that Apple has reached a point where they don't really know where to go with the iPad. They have shown us that their hardware designers can do amazing things in tiny spaces. They have created a gap between the iPad and its nearest competitor that causes the competition to simply throw up their arms and say "I give up." But they they've also moved the iPad further and further away from its "Steve on the Couch" origins and the raw vision of the iPad as the ultimate personal portal into the universe of consumable content and media.

Perhaps it time that the base iPad and iPad mini be seen as the only "True iPads" in the sense of the iPad that Steve Jobs presented to the world. All other iPads, or iPad Pros, or ProPads, really should really be seen as hybrid computing devices that exist somewhere in the personal computing spectrum between the true iPads and MacBook Pros, you know, in the same vicinity as Microsoft's Surface hybrid, but done much better and as only Apple can do best. I simply hope that the True iPad vision does not die.

Respect the couch.

Original iPad with cellular 1.6 pounds
Current iPad Pro 12 with cellular 1.51 pounds.
everything else both lighter and smaller than original.

the cover is optional and requires little effort to remove. Other covers are available as light weight or as rugged as you like.

Raw device is better if every way just sitting on the couch, unlike a laptop that has gotten no better while sitting on the couch.

the couch has been respected and that has led to embracing many other chairs, tables, beds and general sitting surfaces in the house and beyond.

melgross · June 4, 2021 11:09PM

Most people seem to want “wireless” charging. I admit it works well for the low power charger I keep next to my bed. I don’t care if my phone takes several hours to charge when I’m sleeping. Useful for the watch too. But often my iPad is plugged in when I use it and will these chargers keep the iPad charged? A 10 watt charger just barely keeps up with it. A 12 watt dies. 15 watts to the iPad is less once losses are encountered.

canukstorm · June 4, 2021 11:23PM

dewme said:

I'm starting to worry that Apple is slowly destroying the iPad, or at least the iPad as presented by Steve Jobs while lounging on a couch holding a magical portal into an information, entertainment, and self enrichment universe. What made the iPad so special was that it wasn't just another personal computer dragging along all the baggage and claptrap that personal computers cannot seem to distance themselves from. It was just a slab-o-glass, no keyboard, no mouse, no separate monitor, no external paraphernalia to drag around or to clutter up your life.

You'd never see anyone selling "iPad Desks," "iPad Hutch," much less designating a chunk or real estate in their homes as the "iPad Room." The iPad was just something you cozied up with on the couch, or on a deck chair, in the passenger seat of a plane or train, like you would with a good book or sketch pad. You could throw it in your backpack or overnight bag to bring along as a personal companion or to keep up with your journal when you were away from your home or office. Nobody really cared about what was under the hood as long as it kept serving your personal needs. If you needed more than what the iPad delivered, you still had your trusty old personal computer, probably sitting on a special computer desk in the corner of the family room with a rat's nest of wires and peripherals dangling from it.

Look where the iPad is today. There must have been some engineers at Apple who felt personally diminished when they were accused of building a "content consumption device" as if doing that, even when done better than anyone else in the history of personal computing had ever done it so elegantly and effectively for couch dwellers, was actually a bad thing. Real men produce, real men generate content, real men type on keyboards and move cursors using mice and trackpads. Real men have fully preemptive multitasking overlapping window based operating systems on all of their real computing devices.

The claptrap of personal computers from days gone by has caught up and surrounded the iPad. The iPad needs a desk, keyboard, and pointing device to fulfill its manly "content production" tasks. We now do care about what's under the hood and have to worry about whether the iPad we buy is up to the tasks that we are asking of it. Worse yet, we see all of the horsepower the newest iPad has and wonder why not enough developers are developing OS versions or apps to seriously challenge all of those horses. I paid for all that power and I expect it to used. Not sure how or why, but just throw in some complexity until the little bugger begs for mercy.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I do sincerely believe that Apple has reached a point where they don't really know where to go with the iPad. They have shown us that their hardware designers can do amazing things in tiny spaces. They have created a gap between the iPad and its nearest competitor that causes the competition to simply throw up their arms and say "I give up." But they they've also moved the iPad further and further away from its "Steve on the Couch" origins and the raw vision of the iPad as the ultimate personal portal into the universe of consumable content and media.

Perhaps it time that the base iPad and iPad mini be seen as the only "True iPads" in the sense of the iPad that Steve Jobs presented to the world. All other iPads, or iPad Pros, or ProPads, really should really be seen as hybrid computing devices that exist somewhere in the personal computing spectrum between the true iPads and MacBook Pros, you know, in the same vicinity as Microsoft's Surface hybrid, but done much better and as only Apple can do best. I simply hope that the True iPad vision does not die.

Respect the couch.

I get what you're saying about SJ's original 2010 vision of the iPad and from that perspective, the iPad has excelled as a content consumption device. But the problem is, what do you do to convince buyers (new or current) to keep buying iPads if the current (and even older) models do the job very well. There's very little incentive to do so until your current iPad stops working. So where does the iPad go from here. The next step in that evolution is as a "laptop replacement" for the mass consumer market. There are a lot of people that want to do more with their iPads but don't want the complexity of working with a full desktop OS like macOS or Windows.

dnykjprfc6fnbs · June 5, 2021 3:23AM

MplsP said:

spice-boy said:

iPads will get a lot heavier and dropping them will make them a lot more expensive to repair, all this for so called "wireless charging"?

Yeah, that’s my thought. The battery sizes used for iPads are also quite large, so ‘wireless’ charging would need to improve by an order of magnitude to make it viable. Then there’s all the wasted energy….

I still can’t understand what’s wrong with just plugging it in.

I still prefer plugging stuff in. Though I will admit we do have a couple of wireless chargers in the house and sometimes it is a more convenient to walk by and drop my iPhone AirPod Pros or my Bose Quiet comfort noise canceling ear buds on the pad and walk away. Lazy in my part? Probably. It’s a nice convenience though Like the poster below you there’s probably a lot of wireless technologies that Apple may be worried of damage to its products.

melgross · June 5, 2021 4:10PM

CloudTalkin said:

MplsP said:

spice-boy said:

iPads will get a lot heavier and dropping them will make them a lot more expensive to repair, all this for so called "wireless charging"?

Yeah, that’s my thought. The battery sizes used for iPads are also quite large, so ‘wireless’ charging would need to improve by an order of magnitude to make it viable. Then there’s all the wasted energy….

I still can’t understand what’s wrong with just plugging it in.

Wireless charging is already an "order of magnitude" beyond what Apple makes available to customers. Has been for a pretty good while now. Multiple vendors offer higher watt fast charging. Wireless charging is available to charge at a rate up to 65W. Is it not refined enough for Apple's satisfaction? I don't know. Regardless of their reasoning for not including it thus far, the fast charging tech is already available. Could be as simple as Apple wanting to ensure high-watt fast charging wouldn't cause any heretofore unforeseen issues with their devices. Again, Idk but the technical capability is here.
https://www.engadget.com/oppo-125w-flash-charge-65w-airvooc-50w-mini-supervooc-110w-073056359.html

What's wrong with just plugging it in? Absolutely nothing. Plugging it in is a perfectly viable option. Wireless charging is also a perfectly viable option. Option being the key word. Wired and wireless charging aren't binary decisions. Both can and do exist simultaneously.

Apple is more concerned about the early failure of batteries that have been fast charged. There are no phone batteries that are made to withstand the heat and chemical changes that fast charging requires as a matter of the inefficiency. That’s o e reason so many Android users find battery life poor after just one year.

strangedays · June 5, 2021 8:41PM

dysamoria said:

dewme said:

I'm starting to worry that Apple is slowly destroying the iPad, or at least the iPad as presented by Steve Jobs while lounging on a couch holding a magical portal into an information, entertainment, and self enrichment universe. What made the iPad so special was that it wasn't just another personal computer dragging along all the baggage and claptrap that personal computers cannot seem to distance themselves from. It was just a slab-o-glass, no keyboard, no mouse, no separate monitor, no external paraphernalia to drag around or to clutter up your life.

You'd never see anyone selling "iPad Desks," "iPad Hutch," much less designating a chunk or real estate in their homes as the "iPad Room." The iPad was just something you cozied up with on the couch, or on a deck chair, in the passenger seat of a plane or train, like you would with a good book or sketch pad. You could throw it in your backpack or overnight bag to bring along as a personal companion or to keep up with your journal when you were away from your home or office. Nobody really cared about what was under the hood as long as it kept serving your personal needs. If you needed more than what the iPad delivered, you still had your trusty old personal computer, probably sitting on a special computer desk in the corner of the family room with a rat's nest of wires and peripherals dangling from it.

Look where the iPad is today. There must have been some engineers at Apple who felt personally diminished when they were accused of building a "content consumption device" as if doing that, even when done better than anyone else in the history of personal computing had ever done it so elegantly and effectively for couch dwellers, was actually a bad thing. Real men produce, real men generate content, real men type on keyboards and move cursors using mice and trackpads. Real men have fully preemptive multitasking overlapping window based operating systems on all of their real computing devices.

The claptrap of personal computers from days gone by has caught up and surrounded the iPad. The iPad needs a desk, keyboard, and pointing device to fulfill its manly "content production" tasks. We now do care about what's under the hood and have to worry about whether the iPad we buy is up to the tasks that we are asking of it. Worse yet, we see all of the horsepower the newest iPad has and wonder why not enough developers are developing OS versions or apps to seriously challenge all of those horses. I paid for all that power and I expect it to used. Not sure how or why, but just throw in some complexity until the little bugger begs for mercy.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I do sincerely believe that Apple has reached a point where they don't really know where to go with the iPad. They have shown us that their hardware designers can do amazing things in tiny spaces. They have created a gap between the iPad and its nearest competitor that causes the competition to simply throw up their arms and say "I give up." But they they've also moved the iPad further and further away from its "Steve on the Couch" origins and the raw vision of the iPad as the ultimate personal portal into the universe of consumable content and media.

Perhaps it time that the base iPad and iPad mini be seen as the only "True iPads" in the sense of the iPad that Steve Jobs presented to the world. All other iPads, or iPad Pros, or ProPads, really should really be seen as hybrid computing devices that exist somewhere in the personal computing spectrum between the true iPads and MacBook Pros, you know, in the same vicinity as Microsoft's Surface hybrid, but done much better and as only Apple can do best. I simply hope that the True iPad vision does not die.

Respect the couch.

You’re forgetting that Apple need to somehow convince people that they need to buy the same product again, every few years. Feature creep & numbers to compare are all a part of pushing people to buy the same product again next year or the year after that. If adding features that a certain segment of the population believe should be there will provide this function, then they do it.

That said, typing on screen is absolutely abysmal on an iPad Pro. It implies that you can type like as on a physical keyboard, which is absolutely false. It sucks. Using a physical keyboard makes my iPad Pro way more useful than without.

Also, the “vision” of simplicity and ease of use died with iOS 7 in 2013, and every followup since. The removal of physical buttons from the hardware, the piles of not-discoverable and sometimes conflicting gestures, the arbitrary addition & removal of features/functions (3D touch), the loss of distinction between controls & labels...

The Apple of Steve Jobs went away long ago. Today’s Apple is the apple of Wall Street. That they’re not quite as horrible as the rest of the industry is what keeps me hanging on.

You guys are nuts - iPads famously don’t get replaced on a short cadence because they last so damn long. Your planned obsolescence doesn’t jive with reality — Apple gear has a longer useful life span than normal CE crap, and we know this because they get used for years and retain good resale value.

You are not required to upgrade every year. Normals don’t. Enthusiasts and phone nerds do. Do what feels right for you. I know lots of people
with older iPhones, iMacs, Watches and definitely iPads.

Iterative product development is how Apple rolls, and they don’t expect you to upgrade every year. But when you do, likely after several iterations, you’ll get a much more capable device. That’s how it works.

edited June 2021

Apple developing iPad Pro with glass back and MagSafe, home button-less iPad mini

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