“Apple just announced that iPad Pro is available for ordering Wednesday,” Lou Miranda blogs. “I think it’s going to be a huge success, but I am a little concerned about one thing: Where are Apple’s pro apps?”
“Now I fully understand that the iPad Pro is, in many ways, ‘just another iPad’ and thus will not likely have any apps that only run on the iPad Pro. And I understand that Apple wants to encourage third party developers to create apps of their own,” Miranda writes. “But for it to be successful, it certainly needs apps that take advantage of its hallmark features for professionals, such as Pencil and its new keyboard cover (a first for iPads and, I predict, will not be shared with smaller iPads).”
“The iPad Pro is Apple’s first pro iOS device… So why would Apple release an iPad Pro without its own pro apps?” Miranda writes. “My feeling is that the iPad Pro is much like Apple TV: the hardware was ready before the software, and Apple is soft-pedaling both, mostly to developers and early adopters.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We fully expect to see most if not all of Apple’s professional applications appear on iOS (or, at least, exclusively for iPad Pro, in some cases) with in the next 6-18 months.
SEE ALSO:
Apple sets iPad Pro launch as it seeks a more serious crowd – November 9, 2015
Apple’s 12.9-inch iPad Pro: Order online November 11th; arrives in stores later this week – November 9, 2015
Which came first, the Chicken or the egg? Any true Pro app is likely to take a lot more time and resources to develope than most consumer apps. Give it some time. If the current big guns in the Pro software fields don’t deliver, the door is open to innovators to fill the gap. Exciting times indeed!
One fatal flaw with the iPad Pro is that it uses paltry hardware. It’s stuck as a light protable device driven by this latter constraint as well as battery life constraints.
Whereas the Surface Pro 3 and 4 have it beat as their hardware is more powerful where the devices run full desktop Apps. Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Edit raw photos, or whatever. And when you need to, use a point and click device (trackpad) for precision. This is a must for professionals.
Any serious professional will opt for the Surface for these reasons.
I think the iPad Pro is cool, but it’s a me too product that’s flawed out of the gate. It’s basically like a Samsung Galaxy 12″ tablet with a stylus. These are stripped down light computers that are good for what they are: tablets with some stylus functionality. But that’s it.
You want a tablet with stylus functionality that can run full desktop Apps with a point and click device? The Surface.
And the Surface keyboard is the best in the business hands down. Large mulitouch trackpad, good keys, backlighting.
Again, I actually think the iPad Pro is cool, but the paltry hardware where it’s stuck with iOS and dinky mobile Apps; lack of movable stand where it’s stuck at one angle; lack of trackpad and unlappable keyboard… will make this product a niche product that won’t sell very well.
Yeah,,, but the Surface has one big drawback that nothing else it has can make up for.
It runs Windows.
Thanks for your unbiased opinion Mr.Ballmer.
You lost me with the trackpad and keyboard. Those really suck. Also, the iPad Pro has a processor with three cores each running at 2.7 MHz. It’s very comparable to the surface in specs. You should have started and ended with desktop apps, that’s your ONLY point.
jimgramze:
You’re misguided and uninformed. The CPU in the Surface is effectively what’s in your MacBook Pro. The iPad doesn’t even come close here. The Surface as the power to run a full desktop operating system and heavy duty desktop class Apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.
The iPad cannot run these apps because it doesn’t have th power. And if it did get the power, the iPad would be thicker and heavier with less battery life because of the requirements to cool the device from the more powerful hardware and to fit that hardware in.
When it comes to the keyboard and trackpad, the Surface has the best in the business. As for the trackpad, professionals need precision and a mouse is required.
The Force Trackpad is the best in the business. Equal light pressure anywhere on the surface gives you a click, which provides fantastic accuracy. The keyboard on the Macbook Pro is regarded by the vast majority of tech writers as the best in class.
Ars Technica just provided benchmark tests with the new iPad Pro which in most ways outpaces both the 13″ Retina Macbook Pro and the Surface Pro 4. That is rather surprising.
The Surface is a slab, not a tablet. I suppose that spreadsheet professionals might prefer a Surface.
dswe’s comment reads like someone who has studiously ignored all the reviews and benchmarks that show amazing performance that rivals MacBooks (and sometimes surpasses them!), very long battery life, the Pencil being far more advanced than a stylus, and much more.
Maybe it is because you cannot write code on a non-Mac, and from the other articles there are no more Macs, or they are dying, or some other ludicrous shat.
Shat? Don’t you mean shite?
Don’t know where he is from but ‘shat’ is and has been in common use in the UK for the word shit. Indeed just checked its origin and it is the Old English past tense of shit so in a way you are right, where are the grammar police when you need them.
As opposed to ‘shitted’
Yes indeed, it’s the past tense.
And, therefore, inappropriate.
It is not the noun – which is wot is needed ‘ere. I.e. shite.
They’ve apparently done the same thing with the new AppleTV. Release hardware without decent stuff to go with it. Gotta meet those deadlines…sometimes. It’s the new Apple.
Timing does seem to be off these days.
So, when Steve presented the first iPhone, it only came with software from Apple.
Then they set up the App store and allowed people to write software for the IOS devices.
Fast forward a couple of years, and now when they present a new piece of hardware, everyone just expects, that you will be able to write software for it.
That’s the environment that all these “expectations” are swirling around in. It is what it is.
The Apple TV 4 hardware is a good foundation.
The brand-new, Apple TV 4 software is a solid start.
It will only get better. And you know it.
Yeah. Some people don’t seem to grasp the concept that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Whine, whine, whine. How come Apple is the only one in the press that gets criticized this much for not enough apps when they release a new piece of hardware? Microsoft and Android don’t get anywhere near this kinda heat. Besides iOS apps are supposed run on all their devices and do. Don’t worry, the Pencil experience will be fantastic.
aren’t existing apps already used by pros?
‘I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?’ asks Tim Cook.
Well DUH Tim! Here’s one reason.
Did someone sneak some hash into Tim’s brownies? (o_0)
Am I the only one who’s noticed Apple’s recent lethargy regarding the iPad Pro? After the initial product announcement, Apple basically went silent. Then, this Monday they announce preorders will be available Wednesday, but give no time at which preorders will be accepted and no firm date on which the product will be available in the retail stores. Can no one at Apple communicate a decision any more? Or make one?
Today, the day before pre-orders are to begin, the web site for iPad Pro still says “Available November.” Wouldn’t you think that a product that Apple presents as ground-breaking and the death of the PC would at least merit a web site update announcing preorders? Has anyone noticed that the Apple Pencil seems to get more attention than the iPad Pro?
To me, this entire episode speaks to Apple’s lack of confidence in their products. After the less-than-remarkable debut of the Apple Watch, and in the face of declining iPad sales, could it be that Apple doesn’t want to blow their horn too loudly lest someone notice if iPad Pro sales are less than stellar?
I hate to be one to keep digging Steve Jobs up and throwing him in Tim Cook’s face, but I can’t imagine a product launch as weak as this one happening on Jobs’ watch.
But you didn’t refrain from digging.
It had to be said, nonetheless.
I think the iPad Pro is being rushed out for the same reason as the Apple TV was – to have it out in time for the holiday sales season.
Because the haven’t f-d up FCP X enough already? Ahh right.
Pro apps need pro processors and memory sized machines… what iOS devices are not. Some duties NEED trucks, period.
Developers need the release hardware & iOS to develop for a new platform. So it is no surprise new software follows the hardware release not at the same time.🔜🔚
Game consoles are probably the exception to that rule.. No use for the console if new software is not released at the same time.
My opinion (and you know how opinions are).
There’s one thing which really makes a computer product a PRO product:
Development Tools.
If you have a device where you can not develop sofware sraight from the device, sorry, in my book, it’s still a consumer device. A very powerful consumer devices. The coolest consumer device in the world. A consumer device I’d like to have. But a consumer device nevertheless.
The only Pro product Apple has is the Mac. It is fully open, you can install whatever you want, you can develop in any programming language you want, you can install servers, databases, build whatever, break whatever, rebuild the whole thing from zero, hack it, and crack it.
Sure, most people don’t need or do that. That’s the difference between PRO and Consumer. Pros (mostly) know what the hell they are doing. Consumers might or might not know, but the security of the Apple Store and the restrictions in the hardware is there pecisely to make the Consumer life easier. With this, I’m saying I’m not against how Apple manages consumer products.
So, the iPad Pro is a very cool device. Super useful. Very powerful. Beautiful and covenient. But it’s still a Consumer device. It’s very far from being a Pro device.
For now, at least….