“When I received my new 9.7” iPad Pro I decided to break tablet tradition and personalize it with stickers, just as I’ve done on laptops (and my Surfaces) for years. I did so because I began with the mindset that this iPad would replace my laptop(s) for full time use (here laptop means my Surface(s), Yoga, MacBook, and desktops). It has been almost a month and that is exactly what happened,” Steven Sinofsky blogs for Learning by Shipping. “My sticker investment paid off. I don’t feel like I’m forcing myself into this mode of working, but rather I am more productive, futz way less with my ‘computer,’ and find many things easier. Work is different, but better.”
“Unlike many ‘use a product for month’ tests this is not an experiment” Sinofsk writes. “For me this is a deeply held belief that the rise of smartphones (specifically starting when the iPhone launched) would have a profound impact on the way we all use ‘computers.'”
“What kind of productivity did I do? I did everything I do on a laptop and more” Sinofsk writes. “Because of what I do now, I’m often at the receiving end of work products from a lot of people and I don’t get to pick the tools I use — entrepreneurs send documents in any number of formats (Keynote, PDF, Docs, Sheets, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more), tools for document signing/viewing/securing, information products that have sites or apps, all of the cloud storage products, line of business tools, and so on. I also do a lot of work in initiating creation across all sorts of data types (structured, words, images, video). I communicate a lot across a dozen or more different tools. I write a lot of long posts. I do a lot of email. I make and consume spreadsheets. I create and deliver presentations. I use line of business services. I do a lot of things with data. I use the web a lot. In short, I use a lot of different software to do a lot of different stuff.”
Sinofsk writes, “I have not yet experienced something where I had to go back to my laptop.”
Tons more in the full article — very highly recommended (which is a first for something on which Sinofsky has worked. :wink:) — here.
MacDailyNews Take: Think Different™.
The iPad Pro is not meant for older generations. Unless they are willing to completely unlearn and let go of old tricks and learn new ones. That’s very tough to do for some. Those are the people who ask questions like “Where my physical trackpad to go with my physical keyboard?”, “Is it a sketch pad?”, “Is it a laptop replacement?” iPad Pro and iOS are really for the young and for future generations. It is the future. Until the next paradigm shift, perhaps decades away, Multi-touch will be how most people compute, not with physical keyboards, mice, cursors, exposed file systems, etc.
SEE ALSO:
Bill Gates backed Steve Ballmer in Sinofsky ouster – November 13, 2012
Windows head Steven Sinofsky out at Microsoft – November 12, 2012
Microsoft exec Sinofsky blasts Apple’s iPad mini as ‘seven-inch recreational tablet for $329’ – October 26, 2012
[Attribution: The Loop. Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” “Dan K.,” and “Arline M” for the heads up.]
I found this a brave paragraph:
“First, I tend to embrace the shifts sooner and suspend reality sooner. Sometimes this means I ultimately go backwards or undo a change since some shifts don’t really pan out, but it speeds up my own evolution. For what it is worth, most changes eventually happen even if there are a few false starts (Newton, TabletPC).”
Braver than I am typically capable of.
The Newton was not a failed product for me. I used one for years. It failed because people were too dumb to learn to use it.
Perhaps if functionality like touchscreen, WiFi, and Bluetooth existed back then, the MessagePad would have done much better.
Still have my Newton!
Still worked the last time I put batteries in.
Mine are in a time capsule. Heh.
I am all for change when it makes things better. For instance the file system vs the app argument. I get it. You dont need file system access for 98% of people they get to their “work” through the app whatever that is.
However input is hard to argue. This statement…
““Where my physical trackpad ”
I just copied and pasted with a mouse on a PC. I could do it on a smartphone, but it is harder to do with my fingers. Not impossible, just MUCH better with a precision pointing device. It is hard to argue that a finger is more precise than good mouse for many applications. In some cases the finger is better, like painting or drawing.
Change for change sake is never good.
You are using the wrong appendage. For those rare instances when you need that level of pixel precision on the iPad, use the pencil. Much more intuitive and easier than a mouse / trackpad.
“You are using the wrong appendage.”
Sitting here on my Macbook, for your text above is much easier and faster to copy and paste. Easier and faster.
Sure I will get a pencil for my iPad when my iPad 2 gets slow and old. I just got it last year and it replaced my 4 or 5 year old iPad 2. The amount of iPad’s in the wild that have pencil’s right now is less than 1%. With iPad sales decreasing rapidly every quarter I doubt pencil support will be mainstream anytime soon.
Android N is bringing mouse support. Apple would be smart to do the same for iOS if they want to fully realize the iPad as a PC replacement.
As MacDailyNews wrote last December from the link they helpfully provided above for you to read (but, you didn’t):
iPad already has a trackpad.
This works for all iPads with iOS 9 and later: Turn your keyboard into a trackpad. Touch and hold the keyboard with two fingers until it turns light gray. Drag around the keyboard to position the insertion point. Lift, then touch and hold with two fingers to reveal the drag points. Move your fingers to select text. Tap with two fingers to select a word. Double-tap with two fingers to select a sentence. Tap three times with two fingers to select a paragraph.
Read it and I know about the feature and have used it. Not even close to the ease and precision of a mouse.
I not saying get rid of touch, far from it. iOS IMHO has the best touch UI hands down. Android is close but iOS is still that much better, refined if you will.
Touch has its place, but the mouse is the king of precision. It works, Apple just needs to add it as an option. Until they do I cant seriously consider a iPad Pro as a computer replacement.
Look at the indicators. Mac sales are still strong and even growing with a revenue of over 6 billion last quarter. iPad sales have fallen 9 quarters in a row and revenue was 4.4 billion last quarter. The Mac business is better for Apple than the tablet business.
Why wouldn’t Apple allow a BT mouse to work with an iPad?
They afraid of something?
Because a mouse is skating to where the puck has been. It’s a device for late 20-century GUI’s. Apple has been there and done that. Apple has a history of dropping what they deem is old or passé to move on to the next thing. Anyone remember floppy drives?
They are forcing us to think about what the next step in GUI should be. Touch? Voice + AI? Will it be Apple’s vision or someone else’s?
I don’t know. But you can bet it won’t feature a mouse.
That’s a really good article. Lotsa good information and well written. One of the little things I really agree with is his comment on the CMD-Tab list. I use it obsessively on my iPad and Macs but on iOS it is too short. I love SuperTab on the Mac and would enjoy something like that on iOS.
Clearly not a developer…..
But for a lot of other work, it’s a perfect replacement.
Clearly not a developer, for the moment. Give it a year or 2.
I mean unless you are in a business that requires speced up machines and special software, then an iPad will be a solution to you. And for the vast majority of consumers it does.
And for those is such business that do require speced up machines and specialty software, then you are a niche market. Autocad and other niche tools are expensive because they are niche tools that cannot leverage economies of scale. They need to divy up the development costs and profits over a very small and narrow market. Ultimately that is why it’s so expensive. And that’s ok.
The iPad can be a tool for niche markets but it also won’t be a tool to solve all niche markets.
In a meeting with a client, a law office, the other day, I said to them “All of your iMacs were updated in 2014. You’ve got 30 or so 27″ iMacs on all your attorney desks. Brace yourselves. It is possible that these may be the last Macs you ever buy.”
I bought the first ipad and many others, but I’m thinking of abandoning the ipad world and going back to pure Macbook. Why? Because as good as the ipad is, it’s not quite there as far as being able to do things as well as Mac. And I spend increasing time with the ipad with a keyboard (that altogether ends up weighing more than a Macbook) and with the lighter weight of the latest Macbook I’m finding it hard to justify carrying both. I wish Apple would come out with one device that runs Mac and IOS apps.