“If you want an iPad to supplement your iPhone and Mac, you can still get one in the $329 ‘just call me iPad’ model introduced last spring. But the bulk of Apple’s iPad efforts of late have centered on making the device a capable replacement for the traditional computer. The iPad Pro and iOS 11 represent a new vision for the iPad. This vision puts the iPad not next to the Mac, but instead squarely in its place,” Ryan Christoffel writes for MacStories. “It’s a vision embodied by the question, ‘What’s a computer?'”
“I made the iPad Pro my primary computer when it first launched in late 2015. The transition pains from Mac to iPad were minimal, and the device has grown even more capable since that time thanks to improvements in iOS. My need for a Mac is now extremely rare,” Christoffel writes. “My desire for a Mac, however, still exists in a few specific use cases. There are things the Mac has to offer that I wish my iPad could replicate.”
Christoffel’s iPad wish list:
• Multiple Instances of an App
• More Diverse Hardware
• Persistent Background Privileges for Apps
• More First-Party Apps for Professionals
• Multi-User Support
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d love to see everything on that list come to fruition and, here’s another one: RAM options at purchase. Let us load up an iPad Pro with RAM, Apple!
“Apple’s iPad efforts of late have centered on making the device a capable replacement for the traditional computer […] This vision puts the iPad not next to the Mac, but instead squarely in its place.”
Apple can start to maybe think about even considering the possibility of an iPad replacing a Mac when they finally let us add a new group using the iOS Contacts app.
Sick of these articles.
There is no debate. iPad is not a replacement for a Mac. Period.
Anybody who has serious production work to do has:
-Large screens/multiple monitors: iPad screen size is a joke for real productivity.
-Precise control of UI elements (mouse/trackpad).
-Power (CPU, GPU niot constrained by batteries).
-Robust multi-tasking environment.
-Desktop class applications.
People who claim they replace a Mac with an iPad are either delusional or never needed a Mac in the first place.
“People who claim they replace a Mac with an iPad are either delusional or never needed a Mac in the first place.”
I think that’s a perfect straight-to-the-point assessment of the situation.
I think you are either forgetting or discounting the many people who buy laptops for the sole purpose of using email and web browsing. For millions, this is all their computers do. Those of us here on MDN aren’t typically part of that group, so the notion of an iPad-only existence sounds ludicrous. But we are only a subset of all users. iPads are pretty damn capable, up until the point that they are not.
That’s right. They’re the ones who “never needed a Mac in the first place”.
Exactly and end of story …
Has it occurred to you that the iPad wasn’t once capable of doing even a 10th of things it can do now?
This is why people are replacing their MacBooks with iPads.
I still have my MacBook. The only thing I use it for is ARD from time to time. I have replaced it completely with my iPad. However my old iPad couldn’t do the things I needed to do on my MacBook. Now that apps like Pixelmator exist and iMovie are actually usable on the iPad, I’ve replaced my MacBook Pro with my iPad.
Are you honestly telling me that I never needed my Mac even when the iPad wasn’t capable of doing the things it can now do?
Maybe you should consider changing your avatar to cryptic since your post is a bit vague.
“Has it occurred to you that the iPad wasn’t once capable of doing even a 10th of things it can do now?”
A 10th? Maybe it is a 100X now?
That said, when an iPad can render cinema quality movie frames and 3D animation for a full length computer game at the same time, only then, will we talk.
I guessing your personal definition of a heavy iPad user is word processing with a keyboard accessory and discovering the ability to do lightweight photo editing.
All well and good for you. But please, don’t confuse yourself with hardcore Pro users whose needs you don’t understand.
I’m reading way too much of that on this post already …
That is what Chromebooks are for.
“never needed a Mac in the first place.”
And there are more and more people every day that don’t need and will never need a Mac. Or any PC… PostPC, remember? What you have spelled out as requirements for a Mac replacement encompasses a percentage of a percentage of a percentage of the number of iOS users in the world.
For many, that Mac replacement HAS been and WILL be Windows, Linux, whatever. And it’s such a small market, the sooner Apple can leave it behind, the better.
PostPC is bullshit!
Yes, PCs were oversold. The iPad was the answer to the netbook, at laptop prices. There’s the rub!
Add spin and other sycophants who count iPads as PCs and the stench increases.
A computer not under the owner’s control can never be personal.
🐂💩 INDEED!
iPads are NOT TRUCKS and NEVER will be. Just like a street car will never be a formula one racer and a BB gun will never be an elephant gun.
Anyone who says so is TOTALLY misinterpreting the PostPC SJ comment and simply “wrong again.”
You described the meaning perfectly. People over bought trucks (no iPads available for decades) when all they needed was an economy class small car …
Amen!
I have been saying this from Day One!
Lets start with at least a 21 inch screen size
(actually I have two and need them both simultaneously)
–an actual keyboard, hopefully with the old tall key design that helped accuracy compared to the new flat keys)
–a precision item selection device that allow me to select a tiny item that a touch pad could never hope for.
–the power to handle 100+MB graphics files.
— a folder based file system since all of my projects are produced with multiple apps, app based files as opposed to project based multiple app files in one location. App based filing is not useable for work projects that have 100’s of files produced with 12 different apps.
Wait: I already have that! It’s called an iMac. The only thing better would be a 2019 model cheesegrater Mac Pro with 4 hard drives.
What’s a computer? It’s what produces useful things?
What’s an iPad? oh……yeah…..its that thing I take off the shelf once a month or so.
The iPad Pro is a nice thing to have, but is in no way a replacement for a Mac.
Nothing like going to a web site and getting the shitty mobile version just because it sees iOS. Some even ignore it when you request the desktop website.
I’m digitising my movie collection and there’s no way I’d do it on my iPad. I use my 2015 27 inch iMac for that work. The iPad is used for surfing to IMDB to get a synopsis and a rating for the movies.
There’s no way you’ll be allowed to do that on an iPad…
I wish iOS gadgets would get the current Mac advertising budget. & vice versa.
No iPad is going to replace my Mac. If/when Apple decides to stop making the Mac, I will go elsewhere to satisfy my desktop computer using needs!
Commodore is dead… long live the C=64 and Amiga! 😎🤓🤖
You’ve actually waited WAY too long… I’ve been helping folks move out of the Apple ecosystem for YEARS. My question is… why would you wait for them to stop making the Mac? By that time, it’s FAR too late, your competitors are using hardware and software re[gularly updated as THEY see fit. Plus, Apple will likely be keeping machines to develop code for iOS around for quite awhile… but that can be handled by a MacBook or an iMac. If you’re not happy with today’s selections, you won’t be happy with tomorrow’s either.
I work for a fortune 500 company that is primarily Windows.
My 5 year old MacBook Pro still runs way faster than the PCs including brand new ones that are being put in place now.
So I will stay on Mac until they stop making them or until I am forced to Windows.
Benchmarks or it’s BS!
Precisely …
Multi-user support for iPads but not iPhones.
iPads are less personal than iPhones and are more likely to be shared by multiple people while iPhones are always with you, which makes them personal devices.
Half true… there should be “kids mode” or a “guest mode” for iPhones.
Oh my GAWD people! Do you not know this? All of these features are there!
Let me summarize every feature wished for in this article, which I agree are totally useful, and MacDailyNews also agrees would make it great. But..It’s ALREADY available!!
– Windowed apps
– attachable backlit keyboard that gives better laptop like experience
– apps running persistently in background
– full professional grade apps
– multi user support
Do you NOT REALIZE that this has been available For the past number of years? Excited?
My daughter, my wife and I all log in to our accounts by looking at the tablet. We have a backlit attachable keyboard that makes it feel just like a laptop when desired. Windowed apps, professional grade apps, all apps can run persistently in the background. You can have this TODAY!! Ready to fulfill your dreams??
You just have to carve out your Apple blind-loyal brain, and get a Surface.
Sadly, I predict many will just sneer at what I’ve said, keep waiting on Apple and allowing them to dominate with their ecosystem…so they can keep you chained up and buying hardware..while the other tech company that’s been trying for years to give you all that you wish for, is held back, and can’t push over the finish line for you.
[shakes head in bewilderment]
For web users, I found iPad more useful and increase the overall productivity. I wish all the popular sites make awesome dedicated app for iPad too.