“Apple has a new ad for the iPad Pro asking you to ‘Imagine what your computer could do… if your computer was an iPad Pro.’ With this, Apple has come full circle in its positioning of the iPad,” Carolina Milanesi writes for Tech.pinions.
“While the iPad Pro has everything from a hardware perspective that allows it to compete with a PC, it seems to me the biggest battle Apple has on its hands remains the preconceived idea of what a PC is,” Milanesi writes. “Reading comments on Twitter on the new iPad ad, I saw the same points being made as six years ago: iOS is not a ‘full OS,’ there is no file manager structure, there is no access to a disk, multitasking is not comparable, etc., etc.”
“But the world is not the same as six years ago,” Milanesi writes. “Why do you need a disk when you have the cloud? Why do you need a file system when you are using different apps and your work is contained within those apps? Granted, not everybody works like that but more and more people do. Our data shows that, in the US, 80% of early adopters have embraced the cloud and about 30% of mainstream consumers have.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iPad Pro is the computer for the masses.
SEE ALSO:
Apple debuts new iPad Pro TV ad: ‘What’s a Computer?’ – August 1, 2016
iPad Pro is the computer for the masses.
and should have read:
iPad Pro is the computer for the consumer, not enterprise.
iPad Pro can’t :
1. edit the host file
2. host a few virtual servers
3. set up a few monitors
4. compile codes
it’s for novice user
Sooooo… iPad Pro is for the boss; the one who manages and pays the code-monkeys. Its not for the code-monkeys themselves.
A sports car is not an automobile cause you cannot fit a fridge in the back, cannot hall a ton of dirt, or twenty sand bags in it.
Right??
How about an automobile that doesn’t carry people? Is that still an automobile?
It’s a good thing none of those apply to most people, then.
Your points are valid in this discussion.
I love the iPads we have here – the whole family does.
However, there are many tasks I can’t do on one, or need to use Remote Desktop or TeamViewer for. It works, and I imaging most regular folks don’t care, but there’s lots of IT people out there too. And as below, film/audio people.
Make no mistake, the latest Pro iPads are the best and most versatile ever, but not a true replacement for a laptop.
Not for me.
Not yet.
I have been using an iPad Air2 and now the iPad Pro 12 for the past two years as my main device, It allows me to create and edit MS Office Docs and create HTML sites as needed. Also having RDC to connect remotely to our servers is great when saved files are needed from other users. Travel in Europe is very smooth now with global T-Mobile data.
Does it:
Run Pro Tools? (No)
Run Studio One Pro? (No)
Run Logic Pro? (No)
Run Ableton Live? (No)
Run Cubase? (No)
Run Reaper? (No)
Run Sibelius? (No)
Run Notion? (No)
Host 194GB of orchestral libraries? (No)
Support VST plugins? (No)
Support Waves plugins? (No)
Support Melda, Blue Cat plugins? (No)
Hmmmm. Not doing so well on the software I use day-to-day so far…
How about other essential things…
Allow a usable amount of memory – like 16GB or above? (No)
Allow a Firewire connection to an audio interface? (No)
Allow aggregate audio interfaces? (No)
Allow easy access to the file system? (No)
Could multiply these examples…
Now, don’t get me wrong. I *love* and *use* multiple iPads in music production, sometimes even for complete end-to-end production – from tracking to mastering, but a *replacement* for a desktop system they are not. Not in any *drop-in* way. *Can* they be used to do this end-to-end work? Yes, but not in the same way. The closest experience to a desktop DAW is Auria Pro, but even then one is limited by a.) memory b.) “disk” space c.) processing power.
iPad Musicians have found many and varied creative means *around* those limitations and worked in other ways. It’s a different experience as a result. There are unique instruments only available on the iPad. Lots of *good* things. But it’s not a drop-in replacement. Even a Pro. Even with a Pencil. Nope.
(I meant *desktop* Notion above. The iPad *does* run the iPad version of Notion, and that’s actually very useful.)
Fair enough. But your are undoubtedly aware that you are not the target computer user, even though it is the iPad “Pro”.
Like I said, I use multiple iPads already. Other iPad Musician colleagues have and use iPad Pros and love using them for the extra size.
Nor does it run Maya, Lightwave, After Effects, Nuke, Photoshop (as effectively), Houdini, 3D Studio Max, Final Cut Pro X, Premiere Pro, Avid, etc. etc. etc..
iPad Pro is for light business & personal usage and there’s no problem with that. For me an iPad is a small part business, convenience, writing, reading and media consumption/entertainment device.
Ah – interesting perspective. And different than what I was saying.
For me, an iPad is a highly useful creative tool. With few and infrequent exceptions, (reading emails, browsing, using GoodReader to read manuals), I use iPads almost exclusively for music content creation. They aren’t conveniences, they have become an indispensible part of the music creation process.
The tools available for music content creation are numerous (over 750) and very varied. As I mentioned, there are unique tools that are simply not available on the desktop, like Animoog, Moog Model 15, iVCS3, Earhoof, TF7, TC-11, and many many others. Pro music creation work is done with these and other such tools.
*Nevertheless*, and this was the point I was making above, an iPad Pro is not a *drop-in* replacement for existing Pro music creation desktops / laptops and existing workflows. Long way off being that.
One *can* run many of the items I said above on a tablet, but it has to be a Surface Pro. (And that’s Microsoft… So…. 🙂 )
Hope that’s clearer. 🙂
Yes and I also use iPads for lighter creative usage, just not the heavy lifting. But I still love ’em. Every tool has it’s place in the scheme of things.
Audio has become more CPU chump change than visuals where we go from NTSC to HD, now to 4K with scant delivery systems in place even yet, and now they’re start talking about 8K! The audio work I do now is usually tied to a visual but I did plenty of analog 4 & 8-track recording back in the day. Boy was that fun!
Dumb! most people 98% will never use and have never heard of those programs, but the iPad or iPad Pro will fine for the rest (98%) of the world. A regular Navis/Autocad user.
The problem is that the rest of the world isn’t doing *Pro* work with an iPad *Pro* then – are they? 🙂 They’re doing consumer end-user tasks with a “Pro” machine. Not Pro tasks. Pro tasks include the things mentioned by various folks here: audio production, video production, server farm maintenance, where, Pro people in those Pro fields *have* heard of the Pro tools (including Pro Tools 😉 ) and use them.
What we’re all saying is that Pro usage isn’t what the iPad Pro is fitted for – equivalent to what Pros use desktop machines for – in *many* (not all) *common* Pro circumstances.
Exactly. Every time I see a “tablets (of any sort) can replace your laptop I just cringe. NO, they can’t – for everyone. Until the day comes that there are no “buts” then they’re not a laptop. Not a laptop replacement.
In some cases that’s good! An iPad is much more difficult for a kid to hose up – esp if you put some restrictions in place. Only real bummer for true share family use is lack of multiple user’s on the iOS. If they do that, it will be a breakthrough for family use or shared lab use at schools.
The presumption that “the cloud” is always accessible is the first point of failure in this line of reasoning. High speed, ubiquitous access may be the truth in Cupertino, but is sadly not the case everywhere. And the absence of an ability to do backups without a computer makes an iPad not a computer.
But, they are computers. Apple has just chosen to hide the very normal file system behind a magic curtain and deny access to users. The messes that are iTunes libraries, Photos libraries and iBook libraries are frustrating at best and unusable most of the time, because, at the end of the day, they’re just files. By this deliberate crippling of users, Apple is heading down a hill they’ve had to struggle up before. Wondering when they’re going to start back up.
Agreed – and consider that many in studios are deliberately *not* Internet connected – for a variety of reasons. Security, efficiency. (Reduced interrupts from Wifi, Ethernet, BT etc. which can glitch audio processing.) While some are doing collaborative production – tracking, mixing – in the “Cloud” (there is no cloud, just someone else’s computer 😉 ), many keep their work on local servers, with backups archived and vaulted securely locally.
Sure, a building can be broken in to, a safe cracked, but the cloud is just a nightmare waiting to happen in that regard.
Further, streaming of large sample libraries (and as someone else pointed out video), is just not possible from the cloud. Many sample libraries require internal disks spinning at 7200 RPM or greater to maintain adequate throughput – or large enough SSDs – (but then expense becomes an issue). Possibly also RAID’ed.
So, I agree, the cloud is not – in spite of what the popular and promoted opinion is – the future of computing. There are plenty of use cases where that is entirely inappropriate and that will continue to be so for many years.
Agreed; my primary work app is Tumult Hype, which is a program for creating complex HTML5 animations for web use.
After many issues of data corruption, the developers (great people) have recommended we not use the “cloud” to backup or move our work. I took that recommendation 3 months ago, and have had absolutely no file issues since. I now do my backups and completed project storage using Pathfinder to create compressed zips stored on a cheese grater Mac Pro. NO issues since. The “cloud” is not ready.
oh BTW: Hype is not available on iOS, and there are NO plans to do it. The developers are all ex-Apple employees and understand the needs of their customers and do not try to develop every cool, trendy. (read “silly”) idea that comes along.
(I meant – run *desktop* Notion above, the iPad *does* run the iPad version of Notion and that’s actually very useful! 🙂 ).
“iPad Pro is the computer for the masses.”
Not a Chance!
Try running a decent sized Quickbooks for a small business.
Try keeping 500+ folders in Outlook.
Try downloading a file to update another device.
This is why I see Intel Nucs in office rather than iPads.
Same price for a much more usable office or home device.
By the way – many of these same people own iPads (they call them toys).
Owner of 5 iPads, 2 MacBook Pros and a 27 inch iMac.
The iPad Pro is *NOT* the computer for the masses, at least not yet.
Approximately half or more of all computers are sold to businesses as business devices. The iPad Pro is not yet ready to replace desktop or laptop computers in business (either SMB or Enterprise). Give it a few years and maybe, not now.
Yes, the VPs and up could possibly get by with a properly configured iPad Pro. But, the IT hardware purchased for those positions is a very small fraction of the full set purchased for the entire business. Further, a lot of executives have gotten used to having multiple monitors with lots of screen real estate. The iPad Pro will have to support multiple monitors (say two or three 27″ or larger, high rez monitors) before a lot of execs will give up their dockable laptops or desktop machines.
The iPad Pro might, in the next year or three, be the “computer for the consumer”. The average consumer won’t need much more than what the iPad Pro will be able to do by late 2018 or 2019.
I’ll admit that my own case is atypical, but it is not *that* rare. I run a supercharged (overclocked, SSDs, 96 GB RAM, high speed networking, etc.) workstation in the office that regularly takes 9 – 14 hours to run a full simulation. An iPad Pro would just roll over and die if it had to do such a set of calculations — even if the software were available for it. On the road my maxed out 15″ rMBP sometimes barely keeps up with the subset simulations I need to run on the road. Even for the foreseeable future, the iPad Pro will not be able to fill the requirements.
It will be several years (if ever) that an iPad Pro will suffice for people like me.
Curious, what simulations are you running?
Also, I think an exec, if you set them up with a large screen on the wall and AirPlay would be plenty happy, depending on what they’re doing. I haven’t personally run across a lot of execs that are itching to plug in docking stations or a bunch of cables. That’s just my experience.
Use what works for your workflow!
I can’t perform my workflow on any iOS device, apart from temporary uses. My ‘Pro’ is a MacBook Pro and my Mac Mini server with my iOS devices on the side. That’s just me.
Beating a dead horse at this point.
its a great ‘consumer’ computer in my opinion but there are too many limitations for it to replace a full blown PC or Mac, at least in my profession and for my workflow.
As already written up here: Don’t even think about creating and mounting a 3D animation movie on an iPad “Pro”… The distance between a real computer (means a workstation) and this very nice piece of flat technology is about as abyssal than the gap between the Earth and Pluto.
So, 98% don’t need it. Navis, Autocad who?
Please. Stop. Just stop. An iPad Pro costs more than a MacBook Air – to speak nothing of. a Windows or Chrome OS device – while being less powerful and versatile.
If my computer was an iPad Pro I’d buy a windows box. Which, sadly, is what I’m planning on doing. I may run a hackintosh, not sure.
I don’t know what kind of crazy goes on in your head when you think “the cloud” and “lite” versions of software are acceptable alternatives to the existing OS.
The iPad may be for consumers of content. But it’s a completely unacceptable alternative for creators of content.
“But it’s a completely unacceptable alternative for creators of content.”
Not in every circumstance – as I said above. As a music content creator the iPad can perform *very well* *in certain situations and with certain use cases*. Some iPad Musicians produce complete albums solely on the iPad and have been doing so since the iPad 1 days!
I produce complete tracks just on the iPad. I also integrate the iPad with other studio gear.
But, as I *also* noted above, it’s *not* a *drop-in* replacement for doing the kinds of things one can accomplish with 16GB memory a fast Quad Core i7 CPU with 8 virtual cores and 4TB of disk space. Doesn’t compete in the same space.
“While the iPad Pro has everything from a hardware perspective that allows it to compete with a PC, it seems to me the biggest battle Apple has on its hands remains the preconceived idea of what a PC is. ”
wow, that’s one crazy statement.
I HAVE a 12.9 iPad Pro and I love it but ” has everything from a hardware perspective ” ? My iPad is going to compete with my upgraded Mac Pro connected to a 27 inch Cintiq pen monitor and another 25 inch monitor running Adobe suite, Lightwave etc with dozens of work and reference files, training videos, manuals etc open simultaneously?
“it seems to me the biggest battle Apple has on its hands remains the preconceived idea of what a PC is. ”
No the biggest battle is getting the hardware software to match what is available for desktops (and that from all indication matching will take years)
Love my iPad Pro and Pencil, WONDERFUL device , sometimes I have to stop myself scribbling on it, carry it around when I go out, i think for tablets it’s a breakthrough device …. BUT for serious work , for SPEED (power, screen real estate, multiple apps and files open simultaneously, increases speed A LOT) , for high end apps it’s my Mac Pro systems.
(have two Mac Pros, iPad Pro 12.9, Macbook Pro etc).
——
btw, the Apple Pencil is very responsive but unlike what the reviewers say (most of them are not artists who have giant cintiqs or Mac Pros) the Pencil at best only matches the smoothness of a Cintiq pen (sometimes it’s slower as my Cintiq is backed by the Mac Pros GPU and Ram), and there is no ERASER on the end which slows down stuff quite a bit. On a Mac I can CONTROL stuff with the keyboard (shortcuts, switching tools etc) while drawing with the other which most iOS graphics apps lack. . When I’m doing something say drawing a building, I can open reference photos dozens of them on my SECOND big monitor. these things together with what i said above means drawing the SAME THING is much slower in most cases on the iPad than my Mac system.
I know I’m a MINORITY but I have to say … Tim Cook seems very interested in helping minorities … maybe he’ll take pity on high end pro users as well ?
Apple needs a separate development team and and different iOS direction/subset for iPads and for iPad Pro models.
The current iOS form and function is simply not enough to bring the iPad and iPad Pro to a state that is much closer in functionality to what is currently available in laptop and desktop computers.
Perhaps Apple needs to develop an iOS Professional version and leave the current iOS direction as a consumer version strictly for iPhone/iPod Touch users and these users use iOS much differently than iPad users do.
I think the up and coming iOS 10 is going to be completely useless to iPad users.
Waaaay toooo much emphasis on social media functionality.
This social media crap is fine on a phone. Not so much for tablets and iPads.
I use my large iPad Pro A LOT, but I use my Mac more when I need to get precise work done using a computer with much more powerful resources with a much more powerful and flexible OS structure.
An iPad with iOS, so far, is no equal for this.
Apple is at the 10th iteration of iOS, we should be getting more than just social media junk and improvements to photos app to accomodate all this new social media garbage in this up and coming iteration of iOS.
I would like to see more improvemnts with multitasking, better app integration to allow files to be able to move between apps more easily and fluidly for editing in different apps.
How about better iOS optimisation so, iOS devices REALLY see an improvement in battery life?
So far, any Apple issued iOS updates that promised better battery life has only seen my battery life still remain flat or has decreased battery life slightly.
None of my current iDevices have seen any significant and noticeable increase in battery life.
I am a creative, while I love iOS painting/drawing/sketch/idea apps like Pixelmator, Procreate and SketchBook or even Concepts , I wouldn’t mind seeing a more comprehensive mobile iOS version of Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter for iOS and the iPad Pro models.
you have excellent points.
switchable PRO and ‘normal’ OS for iPads would be good.
If my computer were an iPad Pro I would get a Mac.
If the Mac went away I would buy a Surface.
The iPad is a toy.
And the Surface isn’t?
at least the surface can run a full OS and run real apps.