What we have now in the present-day iPad is way better even than what Captain Picard is going to use in the year 2364, their PADD was more bezel than display! 😉
...The “It’s a toy, I want to do real work” crowd is nothing more than a minority in an echo chamber. The iPad has achieved its stated objective, Steve’s original vision of, “computing for the rest of us”.
If it is an echo chamber, it is pretty crowded in here. The top end iPad Pro, with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, pushes the $2000 envelope - why is it too much to ask that it be a tablet AND a laptop? Why do you feel so threatened if we get the ultimate MacBook Air we want? If you don't want to spoil the pure IPaddyness (David Pogue's term, not mine) then just don't enable MacOS mode. Simple - we BOTH get what we want...
PS - to those who bemoan the fact that "MacOS just won't work on a touch device" just set up your iPad Pro as an extended monitor for your Mac and you'll see that touch is good (as an alternate input for selecting items, scrolling, pinch to zoom) AND mouse/keyboard support is nearly the same as MacOS (except for that weird round pointer).
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
MacOS would fit on the iPad but that is not the point.
Exactly, they could have, it’s capable of running full macOS, but they were smart enough to understand that would have been a mistake.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
Maybe Apple didn't shoehorn a desktop in iPadOS, and that's the reason we see the limitations, for example, in multitasking. .
Not sure why multitasking comes up. I mean it does. Maybe you don’t have separate windows for everything, oh yeah, now you do, but it does. As far as the Surface being a “better device”, I’d let sales answer that one. Sure the surface has the full Win11 environment going for it, but the iPad outsells it handily.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
That is very true. The iPad didn’t need the full OS on it, I think people saying that it should have the full OS are just using it as a talking point and it’s like saying Apple should have a touchscreen on the Mac computer, not taking into consideration that the Apple touchpad is by far the best in the business, Microsoft to this day, still can’t get it, close to right.
I had occasion to configure and support some Win touch screen systems, as well as some experimental work trying to integrate a Surface into the systems the company I worked for manufactured. Windows with touch scabbed on top really is not a good experience. Apple went the right route starting with a simplified UI and adding features to it.
Now after 13 years of growth, it’s a powerful system. My M1 iPP is my primary computing device for creativity and business.
The thing people forget when they say macOS should run on iPad is the fact that macOS also runs every Mac up to Mac Pro. This sets up significant functionality conflicts noted in your experience with Windows. An iPad without a touch UI would be pointless. A Mac Pro with touch would be pointless. (A multi-screen desktop workstation with a touch UI would be an ergonomic nightmare.) An OS that carries two different UIs, with each displaying separately based on the hardware configuration adds a lot of useless bloat and increased likelihood of bugginess.
There’s a good reason iPhone was created with its own distinct touch-based UI, rather than some sort of adaptation of macOS. It followed easily with the introduction of the iPad that a tablet device would be better served by an extension of iOS than by an extension of macOS. Even as iPad has become a much more powerful hardware device, that fact still remains true, and this continues to be the reason there won’t be an iPad and MacBook merger, a la MS Surface. A tablet with a workstation OS with a touch UI scabbed on top is a hot mess.
The success of iPad over all other tablets strongly suggests that Apple’s decision not to merge it with the Mac line was and still is sound.
Your comment makes sense when you use an iPad as a tablet. As soon as you connect the Magic Keyboard, it tries to work as a notebook and the experience is terrible, maybe worse than a Surface. IMO, iPad is a better tablet, and the Surface does better as a notebook replacement.
What would be "magic" is if I could drag a doc in a macOS file onto an iPad screen and it would "magically" appear in the PadOS app to allow me to do annotations, insert pictures taken with the camera, etc, and then allow me to drag back onto the Mac.
You can do this.
Drag your Mac document to the iCloud Drive app (maybe set a shortcut on your dock or desktop?). Boom, it’s available on both devices. Open the document in the appropriate app on iPad, make changes.
Of course the reverse is true also: just save to iCloud in whatever folder you prefer to save it in. Go to the Mac, click the iCloud Drive shortcut, boom.
I first bought an iPad a year or two after they came out, and I did struggle with it a bit until I bought a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. A few years later, I bought this iPad Pro and a Magic Keyboard I’m working on right now.
Ever since then, my MacBook Pro has become a desktop. I almost never take it with me anywhere unless I know I’m going to be doing something where I have to have a more powerful computer. Most of what I do now is writing and modest photo editing, putting the result up on my Wordpress-based site.
Why should I drag a heavy notebook halfway around the world when the smaller, lighter, even more portable iPad Pro w/Magic Keyboard can do everything I personally need to get done when I’m away? Have I mentioned how crazy good the battery life is on this thing compared to my MBP?
Another use case that’s not specific to me: more and more people of all ages seem to not want to be “tied to a desk” as much as we did in the earlier eras of computing. This means things to need to be portable and light, but capable enough for typical tasks. Older folks of my acquaintance like having an iPad available for sitting on the couch or in their recliner, younger people like having something so light and portable for lunch break, or catching up on email while they’re at a cafe, watching a show while running on their treadmill, or catching up on the social media of their choice while sitting comfortably somewhere.
I absolutely love this thing, but yes a Magic Keyboard or a third-party keyboard case (and maybe an Apple Pencil) is a must to get the most out of it.
Funny about the BlackBerry device — I was just watching the docu-drama about the company, and I’m shocked that they even released a tablet after their disastrous showing against the iPhone.
The thing about iPad is, for me, the convenience factor.
Whereas my iPhone screen is too small to fully enjoy content, the iAd screen is great. And I don’t have to go thrpugh the time consuming pets of opening a laptop, logging into a desktop, etc to get what I want. I can just jump in and jump out in an instant.
It is dead simple to enjoy while maintaining high spec hardware.
While everyone else is worried about some folding gimmick, a new this or thst, apple keeps upgrading hardware and refining a simple and enjoyable experience.
I remember Steve Ballmer holding a 16x9 slate tablet 6 months after iPad launch and it had the Twilight movie poster artwork on It and it was two hands holding… an Apple.
What would be "magic" is if I could drag a doc in a macOS file onto an iPad screen and it would "magically" appear in the PadOS app to allow me to do annotations, insert pictures taken with the camera, etc, and then allow me to drag back onto the Mac.
You can do this.
Drag your Mac document to the iCloud Drive app (maybe set a shortcut on your dock or desktop?). Boom, it’s available on both devices. Open the document in the appropriate app on iPad, make changes.
Of course the reverse is true also: just save to iCloud in whatever folder you prefer to save it in. Go to the Mac, click the iCloud Drive shortcut, boom.
To be fair that isn't the same as what is being suggested. However, I thought this functionality was already implemented. I don't have modern enough Apple machines to test it on but Huawei and Honor devices do this easily through multi-screen collaboration.
A 'virtual' phone/tablet appears on the PC screen (using a one tap NFC physical connection). From there you can drag files between the systems in real time. No cloud syncing required. Selected text etc.
I've even used the system to channel a Google Meet session onto a device without GMS.
iCloud is a reasonable workaround as long as you have the cloud space and the syncing does not get delayed. My wife has had occasions when things like notes haven't synced quickly between her iPad/iPhone.
AirDrop (when it works!) is another potential option but it's 'pull your hair out frustrating' when it refuses to work and requires Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and iCloud being on.
One of the absolutely huge limitations on Apple tablet was the utter lack of even the simplest file management options. Even for mundane things like email attachments. When tablet file management finally appeared it was still limited. That never made sense if the device was supposed to substitute a laptop/desktop for some folks.
I'm totally into unitasking and the iPad has always been the perfect computer for my desire to focus on one thing at a time. Of course I have no problem with multitasking in terms of having background services running all of the time for synchronization, OS housekeeping, etc., sorts of things. But the mere concept of someone keeping 50 tabs open in their browser totally boggles my mind. A couple or a few open tabs, but who keeps 50 books/journals open on their desk at the same time? Insane or incredibly disorganized people maybe. I only have one brain and one set of eyes. I am the weakest link when it comes to multitasking.
I still view the iPad as a highly personal device that replaces a plethora of things that used to clutter my life. You don't need a dedicated "computer room" for your iPad. It's just you and the iPad magic portal in your hands. If I want to do anything more demanding, hello MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. I love that Apple has maintained the separation between their device types with the iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, and Studio/mini/Pro. We are so fortunate to have such a broad choice of great devices and some degree of overlap between devices if you don't want to buy a bunch of devices and can often make one device fill a couple of roles. Maybe someday we'll have one device that morphs itself into whatever role it needs to support. Vision Pro may be the first baby step in that direction, but I'm very content to stick with what is currently available for a little longer.
I've used pretty much every version of Mobile computing device Microsoft has tried/experimented with. The Surface is simply a Windows notebook computer with a floppy keyboard and trackpad. Big whoop. It's an embarrassingly lousy tablet. Don't go there. I vastly prefer a slim clamshell like one of the many MacBook Air copycats if I need to use a mobile Windows machine, which I do quite often.
IPadOS is what is holding it back. Otherwise it is my ideal portable when I need something more flexible than a iPhone. Natural disaster work in the field it is hands down the best device. My field set up is a 13 mini and an 11 inch IPP. anyhoo, my wishes are mostly OS related. The biggest being the file management system. It has slowly, slowly improved over last few years, but really, it should be at least the equivalent to finder to MacOS, if not better. multitasking and windowing is still difficult. At least you can do it now, but it still is a pain and not intuitive. Multi user support. This is a key stopping point to widerspread workplace adoption.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
MacOS would fit on the iPad but that is not the point.
Exactly, they could have, it’s capable of running full macOS, but they were smart enough to understand that would have been a mistake.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
Maybe Apple didn't shoehorn a desktop in iPadOS, and that's the reason we see the limitations, for example, in multitasking. .
Not sure why multitasking comes up. I mean it does. Maybe you don’t have separate windows for everything, oh yeah, now you do, but it does. As far as the Surface being a “better device”, I’d let sales answer that one. Sure the surface has the full Win11 environment going for it, but the iPad outsells it handily.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
That is very true. The iPad didn’t need the full OS on it, I think people saying that it should have the full OS are just using it as a talking point and it’s like saying Apple should have a touchscreen on the Mac computer, not taking into consideration that the Apple touchpad is by far the best in the business, Microsoft to this day, still can’t get it, close to right.
I had occasion to configure and support some Win touch screen systems, as well as some experimental work trying to integrate a Surface into the systems the company I worked for manufactured. Windows with touch scabbed on top really is not a good experience. Apple went the right route starting with a simplified UI and adding features to it.
Now after 13 years of growth, it’s a powerful system. My M1 iPP is my primary computing device for creativity and business.
The thing people forget when they say macOS should run on iPad is the fact that macOS also runs every Mac up to Mac Pro. This sets up significant functionality conflicts noted in your experience with Windows. An iPad without a touch UI would be pointless. A Mac Pro with touch would be pointless. (A multi-screen desktop workstation with a touch UI would be an ergonomic nightmare.) An OS that carries two different UIs, with each displaying separately based on the hardware configuration adds a lot of useless bloat and increased likelihood of bugginess.
There’s a good reason iPhone was created with its own distinct touch-based UI, rather than some sort of adaptation of macOS. It followed easily with the introduction of the iPad that a tablet device would be better served by an extension of iOS than by an extension of macOS. Even as iPad has become a much more powerful hardware device, that fact still remains true, and this continues to be the reason there won’t be an iPad and MacBook merger, a la MS Surface. A tablet with a workstation OS with a touch UI scabbed on top is a hot mess.
The success of iPad over all other tablets strongly suggests that Apple’s decision not to merge it with the Mac line was and still is sound.
Your comment makes sense when you use an iPad as a tablet. As soon as you connect the Magic Keyboard, it tries to work as a notebook and the experience is terrible, maybe worse than a Surface. IMO, iPad is a better tablet, and the Surface does better as a notebook replacement.
In my experience, connecting the keyboard is simply an easier way to do a little light typing when using an iPad. I don't find that I'm suddenly trying to use it as a notebook. My direct experience with the surface is limited. I have a coworker who somehow ended up with one as their main work computer, and it sure seems to be truly suboptimal. He rarely uses it as a tablet, and it's severely limited as a desktop unit driving two monitors. Seems like he has to disconnect the external keyboard to use the USB port for a thumb drive, and then in that process it switches between the standard and touch user interfaces, making it all, as I say, a hot mess. There's probably an easier way, but it shouldn't so readily descend into interface hell when using it. It's the PC embodiment of 'jack of all trades and master of none.'
I'm totally into unitasking and the iPad has always been the perfect computer for my desire to focus on one thing at a time. Of course I have no problem with multitasking in terms of having background services running all of the time for synchronization, OS housekeeping, etc., sorts of things. But the mere concept of someone keeping 50 tabs open in their browser totally boggles my mind. A couple or a few open tabs, but who keeps 50 books/journals open on their desk at the same time? Insane or incredibly disorganized people maybe. I only have one brain and one set of eyes. I am the weakest link when it comes to multitasking.
I still view the iPad as a highly personal device that replaces a plethora of things that used to clutter my life. You don't need a dedicated "computer room" for your iPad. It's just you and the iPad magic portal in your hands. If I want to do anything more demanding, hello MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. I love that Apple has maintained the separation between their device types with the iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, and Studio/mini/Pro. We are so fortunate to have such a broad choice of great devices and some degree of overlap between devices if you don't want to buy a bunch of devices and can often make one device fill a couple of roles. Maybe someday we'll have one device that morphs itself into whatever role it needs to support. Vision Pro may be the first baby step in that direction, but I'm very content to stick with what is currently available for a little longer.
I've used pretty much every version of Mobile computing device Microsoft has tried/experimented with. The Surface is simply a Windows notebook computer with a floppy keyboard and trackpad. Big whoop. It's an embarrassingly lousy tablet. Don't go there. I vastly prefer a slim clamshell like one of the many MacBook Air copycats if I need to use a mobile Windows machine, which I do quite often.
I could agree that the Surface is not the best tablet. But is a better device when you use a keyboard + trackpad.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
MacOS would fit on the iPad but that is not the point.
Exactly, they could have, it’s capable of running full macOS, but they were smart enough to understand that would have been a mistake.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
Maybe Apple didn't shoehorn a desktop in iPadOS, and that's the reason we see the limitations, for example, in multitasking. .
Not sure why multitasking comes up. I mean it does. Maybe you don’t have separate windows for everything, oh yeah, now you do, but it does. As far as the Surface being a “better device”, I’d let sales answer that one. Sure the surface has the full Win11 environment going for it, but the iPad outsells it handily.
The smartest thing Apple did, and also the most criticized, has been to not use macOS on the iPad. It’s a different device, that needs a different environment and UI. Now I think it could do more, and slowly they are making padOS do more. But if they had just dropped macOS onto the iPad, like Microsoft has done with the Windows on the Surface, it would have languished and died. macOS would not fit on a tablet. The modifications you would need to make it work on a tablet environment would be so extensive that, you’d end up with padOS.
The fact that Apple had the guts to go all in and not try to shoehorn a desktop onto the iPad is to a great extent why it is doing so well.
That is very true. The iPad didn’t need the full OS on it, I think people saying that it should have the full OS are just using it as a talking point and it’s like saying Apple should have a touchscreen on the Mac computer, not taking into consideration that the Apple touchpad is by far the best in the business, Microsoft to this day, still can’t get it, close to right.
I had occasion to configure and support some Win touch screen systems, as well as some experimental work trying to integrate a Surface into the systems the company I worked for manufactured. Windows with touch scabbed on top really is not a good experience. Apple went the right route starting with a simplified UI and adding features to it.
Now after 13 years of growth, it’s a powerful system. My M1 iPP is my primary computing device for creativity and business.
The thing people forget when they say macOS should run on iPad is the fact that macOS also runs every Mac up to Mac Pro. This sets up significant functionality conflicts noted in your experience with Windows. An iPad without a touch UI would be pointless. A Mac Pro with touch would be pointless. (A multi-screen desktop workstation with a touch UI would be an ergonomic nightmare.) An OS that carries two different UIs, with each displaying separately based on the hardware configuration adds a lot of useless bloat and increased likelihood of bugginess.
There’s a good reason iPhone was created with its own distinct touch-based UI, rather than some sort of adaptation of macOS. It followed easily with the introduction of the iPad that a tablet device would be better served by an extension of iOS than by an extension of macOS. Even as iPad has become a much more powerful hardware device, that fact still remains true, and this continues to be the reason there won’t be an iPad and MacBook merger, a la MS Surface. A tablet with a workstation OS with a touch UI scabbed on top is a hot mess.
The success of iPad over all other tablets strongly suggests that Apple’s decision not to merge it with the Mac line was and still is sound.
Your comment makes sense when you use an iPad as a tablet. As soon as you connect the Magic Keyboard, it tries to work as a notebook and the experience is terrible, maybe worse than a Surface. IMO, iPad is a better tablet, and the Surface does better as a notebook replacement.
In my experience, connecting the keyboard is simply an easier way to do a little light typing when using an iPad. I don't find that I'm suddenly trying to use it as a notebook. My direct experience with the surface is limited. I have a coworker who somehow ended up with one as their main work computer, and it sure seems to be truly suboptimal. He rarely uses it as a tablet, and it's severely limited as a desktop unit driving two monitors. Seems like he has to disconnect the external keyboard to use the USB port for a thumb drive, and then in that process it switches between the standard and touch user interfaces, making it all, as I say, a hot mess. There's probably an easier way, but it shouldn't so readily descend into interface hell when using it. It's the PC embodiment of 'jack of all trades and master of none.'
You don't try to use it as a notebook because you can't. With a Surface you have better multitasking, applications designed for keyboard + trackpad and even a dock so you can have the full desktop experience. And your co-worker could use the Surface Dock to connect the two monitors. Like a said before, iPad is a better tablet, but as a laptop / desktop replacement, the Surface Pro does a better job. I had a Surface Pro 4 and I'm aware of it's limitations. For me, the worst was battery life and heat. Now I'm looking forward to a Surface the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. It should improve the experience a lot compared to the Intel model.
And 14 years later, the iPad is still hampered by iPadOS and its restrictions and limited functionality. The fact that an iPad and a keyboard cost more than a far superior MacBook Air is a big problem. Most would take the MacBook Air and do so much more with it. The M-class SoC is wasted in the iPad because iPadOS cannot take full advantage of the chip, and it runs baby-versions of apps made for iPadOS. 14 years later, the iPad still does the exact same thing as the first generation model in 2010. Nothing has changed. That is why every new iPad is not that exciting. It is still the same device.
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PS - to those who bemoan the fact that "MacOS just won't work on a touch device" just set up your iPad Pro as an extended monitor for your Mac and you'll see that touch is good (as an alternate input for selecting items, scrolling, pinch to zoom) AND mouse/keyboard support is nearly the same as MacOS (except for that weird round pointer).
Drag your Mac document to the iCloud Drive app (maybe set a shortcut on your dock or desktop?). Boom, it’s available on both devices. Open the document in the appropriate app on iPad, make changes.
Another use case that’s not specific to me: more and more people of all ages seem to not want to be “tied to a desk” as much as we did in the earlier eras of computing. This means things to need to be portable and light, but capable enough for typical tasks. Older folks of my acquaintance like having an iPad available for sitting on the couch or in their recliner, younger people like having something so light and portable for lunch break, or catching up on email while they’re at a cafe, watching a show while running on their treadmill, or catching up on the social media of their choice while sitting comfortably somewhere.
A 'virtual' phone/tablet appears on the PC screen (using a one tap NFC physical connection). From there you can drag files between the systems in real time. No cloud syncing required. Selected text etc.
I've even used the system to channel a Google Meet session onto a device without GMS.
iCloud is a reasonable workaround as long as you have the cloud space and the syncing does not get delayed. My wife has had occasions when things like notes haven't synced quickly between her iPad/iPhone.
AirDrop (when it works!) is another potential option but it's 'pull your hair out frustrating' when it refuses to work and requires Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and iCloud being on.
One of the absolutely huge limitations on Apple tablet was the utter lack of even the simplest file management options. Even for mundane things like email attachments. When tablet file management finally appeared it was still limited. That never made sense if the device was supposed to substitute a laptop/desktop for some folks.
I still view the iPad as a highly personal device that replaces a plethora of things that used to clutter my life. You don't need a dedicated "computer room" for your iPad. It's just you and the iPad magic portal in your hands. If I want to do anything more demanding, hello MacBook Pro or Mac Studio. I love that Apple has maintained the separation between their device types with the iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, and Studio/mini/Pro. We are so fortunate to have such a broad choice of great devices and some degree of overlap between devices if you don't want to buy a bunch of devices and can often make one device fill a couple of roles. Maybe someday we'll have one device that morphs itself into whatever role it needs to support. Vision Pro may be the first baby step in that direction, but I'm very content to stick with what is currently available for a little longer.
I've used pretty much every version of Mobile computing device Microsoft has tried/experimented with. The Surface is simply a Windows notebook computer with a floppy keyboard and trackpad. Big whoop. It's an embarrassingly lousy tablet. Don't go there. I vastly prefer a slim clamshell like one of the many MacBook Air copycats if I need to use a mobile Windows machine, which I do quite often.
anyhoo, my wishes are mostly OS related. The biggest being the file management system. It has slowly, slowly improved over last few years, but really, it should be at least the equivalent to finder to MacOS, if not better.
multitasking and windowing is still difficult. At least you can do it now, but it still is a pain and not intuitive.
Multi user support. This is a key stopping point to widerspread workplace adoption.