“Apple Inc. has been linked for sometime with the production of an iPad Pro tablet,” Christopher Morris writes for ValueWalk. “The thoughts behind this is that the release of an iPad with a higher spec would attract people back to what is effectively a stalling product niche. It is perhaps too harsh to describe the iPad’s recent performance as failure, but there is clearly a lack of growth in this sector, despite the fact that the Apple tablet remains the market leader.”
“There are actually several reasons to believe that this device could have a major impact on Apple tablet sales,” Morris writes. “A larger screen tablet offering would particularly appeal to business customers, while a faster processor and increased RAM would clearly suit to the sort of processor-intensive tasks that businesses typically ask of tablet computers. A bundled stylus could also be useful for mobile computing within some companies. And there is a wealth of potential in the Force Touch technology which will surely be included in the iPad Pro, which that recently a major part of the Apple Watch release.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Give us side-by-side or even just improved iOS multitasking with sufficient RAM onboard (for once; iPads to date have always been RAM-starved) and we might be able to actually replace our MacBook Airs with iPad Pros. An iPad Air with the same would also be welcome. Right now, while working on the go, our iPad Airs are distant second choices behind our 11-inch MacBook Airs.
The iPad Pro will not really take off unless it can run the full set of real business applications. iOS does not do this. Otherwise, it is just a bigger tool for music, games, e-mail and surfing the web.
IBM
The IBM collaboration is essential, but even more important is supporting the types of workflow where iOS completely fails: (1) team document sharing and (2) inter-app workflows. iCloud and sandboxing are absolutely at odds with these critical, fundamental necessities of corporate work. You have to be able to edit an image, import it by reference into a page layout, share that page-layout document with a colleague, and have the colleague in turn publish to the internal corporate website. Then you have to be able to save a change to your document and have that published to the website without your colleague re-import it. It may sound trivial in this context but imagine that same scenario with forty people collaborating. iOS can’t do that. iCloud refuses to do it, and sandboxing is the gatekeeper that prevents iOS productivity from replacing computer workflows.
Go ahead, flame me for being right. I can take it. I’ve been engineering and managing productivity software for thirty years, and worked at Apple for seven years. You can trust me when I say that iOS is not a replacement for your desktop Mac.
Sales volume is not the issue but the result of customer need (Dr. Drucker.)
Tablets are ho-hum now. Significant increase in number of shipments, regardless of the size of a tablet, is going to be dictated by usefullness in business with new apps to do high value work in specific job arenas.
If a worker is doing primarily contacts on his tablet, size doesn’t matter and a small one is easier to carry. If the worker is selling dresses or real estate, then a big screen is an asset.
Who cares? 12+ would need to do something the 9 does not.
Looking forward to Microsoft giving the OS away. Macs are getting slower and costing move for these slower cpus.It’s just numbers now. So let’s have them. How many did they sell, and why didn’t they sell 10 of millions more.
Real business apps? That writes Microsoft out of the picture.
You clearly don’t get it do you.
Written like a Disciple of the Ballmer School of Business.
Actually, the iPad Pro will not really take off IF WE CANNOT ACTUALLY BUY IT! Announcing it—and then making everyone stand in line and wait 6 to 8 weeks to receive it—is ridiculous. And it is fully what I expect to happen. Let the flaming begin!
Yes, how foolish of Apple to make things that millions of people want right away.
You might say “don’t announce it until there is sufficient supply,” but that doesn’t change when you can actually get the thing. It’s at worst the same time, except that some people can get theirs early. So there’s no benefit to waiting other than alleviating your self-imposed frustrations.
I’m scared to see the pricing!
I agree 100% Rauckr.
I have had every iPad save the iPad 4, which was basically the same as the iPad 3, save a speed bump and the new lightning connector. I loved the iPad Air and now I’m loving the Air 2; but these newer iPads are much more fragile (I broke 2 iPad Airs by dropping them… while they were in the iPad cases no less).
I relish the thought of an iPad Pro, but they better not use the “Pro” moniker unless it can run some form of hybrid iOS/OSX operating system. Tim Cook has refused to innovate the iPad, in fact it does the same thing the original one did, with the exact same non-existent file system.
And he wonders why sales are languishing. If the iPad Pro has an actual file system and printer support outside of Airprint, I’ll buy the top of the line model.
You’re a nexus or Galaxy kind of being, aren’t you.
I’d buy one
Don’t know why the fanboys don’t get it!
An ipad pro needs to run some form of OS X so that we can use real apps on it. I don’t want a bigger faster iPad, I want a real computer in a tablet.
I will want to line up for an iPad Pro! As long as the rumor persists, I will not be upgrading my iPad 3. Even though, it’s starting to show it’s age, it is more than serviceable for 90% of the tasks I need it for, and this is more likely the problem with iPad. In the beginning the was definitive reasons for upgrading your iPad, at least every other year. I don’t have a compelling reason for running out to get an updated iPad. I could probably last 2 more cycles on my current iPad. The iPad Pro would give me a clear reason to upgrade. Although, I’m sure an iPad Pro, with Wi-Fi only, would probably top out somewhere between $800 and $1000, which would give me pause to jump into the upgrade. Good thing Apple products have such great resale value.
My iPad 3 is still going strong, too. I waited until the first retina model, and that decision has paid off. The iPad 3 may be thicker and heavier, but it has been a workhorse and still has quite a bit of life ahead of it.
Yes still use mine but to be honest it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, slow wifi problems and just feeling a little clunky now. Trouble is a new one without multi tasking improvements and easier app interaction and better text manipulation just doesn’t make it worth it to me just a faster less irritating version of what I have. t this rate I will just plod on for a bit longer especially as t first is upgrade on this one only a few months after buying it started the slowing up in particular.
Regarding the size of an iPad Pro . . . I have an iPad 2. It is comfortable to hold. It’s body is 12 inches diagonally including the bezel (the iPad 2 has a wider Bezel than the iPad Air) . . . If Apple makes an iPad Pro, with a thinner bezel like the Air, the entire form factor would not be much bigger than an iPad 2. And that would be comfortable. (I think some people are assuming that the iPad Pro will be some huge form factor)
5K?
Spreadsheet work is where it’s at.
http://perezonomics.com/1/post/2015/01/a-larger-ipad-is-long-overdue.html
I love my iPad. But I don’t try to do anything serious on it. It doesn’t do anything as well as my MacBook Air.
What? Words With Friends isn’t serious?
Sounds like a great idea. Go for it Apple.it would be great for illustrators and artists like David Hockney who want/need a larger surface to create their art. I would like it for that as well as composing my photographs using the iPad. Not for everybody, then what devise is truly one size fits all?
While introducing any new gadget Apple has a tendency to first pay attention to margins and the new offerings are often underpowered. They do it to please analysts who always talk of compressed margins but otherwise do give a shi%$ about Apple. A bad strategy!
For making music, iPads are the absolute best. They are insanely capable. I am ordering an iPad Pro in the very first hour that they start taking orders.
There are two very important to me use cases for an iPad Pro. One is for sheet music that could display as a PDF full sized. I know a lot of musicians who want a large screen for sheet music. This could also go to PDFs in general that do not scale well when shrunk down.
The other is comic books. A larger screen to take in the whole page and be able to read the text easily would be great.
Obviously a larger screen iPad would also provide a better experience for web browsing, business apps, and dual and even quad screen apps.
They do need to keep the 4×3 aspect ratio and not jump into the 16×9 which is only ideal for video.
That would work for me, too- art and music. Creation, not just content.
Pros already use iPads.