Thiago Trevisan has a must-read article, “Why you should skip the M4 Macs and just buy an iPad Pro instead,” at Macworld. However, an iPad Pro will never become my main computing device until it runs macOS.
Or at least a much improved version of iPadOS. Apple touts its high end tablet with the line that “your next computer won’t be a computer.” However, there’s no way I’d try and do my daily Apple World Today workflow using an iPad Pro.
With the M4 processor, it has all the power I need. And I love the portability and versatility of the tablet. However, iPadOS is simply too limiting in lots of respects, especially when it comes to multi-tasking.
Will we ever see macOS running on an iPad? Apple says no, but, as noted by AppleInsider, last October leaker Majin Bu claimed Apple is working on a version of macOS exclusively for the M2 iPad Pro.
He said it will be a “smaller” version of the operating system and arrive in 2023. According to Bu, testing is being done with a 25% larger macOS UI so it is suitable for touch. However, apps run on the product would still be iPad-optimized versions, not macOS ones.
I’m very skeptical about this. Why wouldn’t Apple just release macOS on an iPad instead of a “lite” version. However, Apple constantly describes the iPad as its most “versatile” device. What would be more versatile than a future 16-inch iPad Pro running macOS?
Writing for MacWorld, David Price sums things up my opinion perfectly in his article, “Apple still has no idea what to do with the iPad.”
From his article (which you should read in full): Is the iPad a high-end creative tool? Is it a laptop replacement for business users, or a note-taker for people in hospitals and building sites? Or is it what it’s overwhelmingly used as right now, which is a low-end, instant-booting web surfer for users to mess around with on the couch while someone else watches Netflix on the big TV? ….
If Apple wants the iPad to replace the MacBook, it needs to bring iPadOS closer to macOS in scope and organizational structure. It’s not like the software department at Cupertino hasn’t tried: numerous multitasking features and modes have been added to iPadOS over the years. But we’re still at a point where doing two things at the same time is a lot more of a hassle on an iPad than it would be on a Mac, and as long as that’s the case, you can’t expect it to take off as a mainstream laptop replacement.
Conversely, turning iPadOS into a sophisticated desktop-style OS will shrink the iPad’s appeal for its current userbase, by taking away the simple qualities that they value. And there’s no easy way to make both groups happy.
Apple should rebrand the iPad Pro the Mac Pad and let it run macOS. To me that would offer a great form factor and a great operating system for both work and play.
Apple could continue making the iPad Air as a consumer oriented device running iPadOS. As for the iPad mini, as I’ve suggested before, Apple should rebrand it as an ebook reader.
As for the plain ‘ol iPad, just drop it entirely. These moves would help simplify the super-complicated iPad line-up.
And, most importantly, it will make it possible for the iPad Pro to finally grow up.
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