“Apple — or at the very least, its CEO — thinks the iPad is the future of computing. It’s not shy about that idea. ‘Why would you buy a PC anymore?’ Tim Cook, who reportedly does 80 percent of his work on the device, asked the crowd at an Apple store in London this week. ‘No, really — why would you buy one?'” David Pierce writes for Wired. “Steve Jobs once said tablets are cars and laptops are trucks. And Apple is making deals with IBM, Cisco, and anyone else it can find to put enterprise apps on tablets. But the iPad’s always had one key problem: It’s ill-suited to the work people do at work. The apps don’t do enough. The tablet isn’t powerful enough. The screen isn’t big enough.”
Pierce writes, “All that’s changed with the iPad Pro.”
“The iPad Pro is plenty powerful, and it’s plenty big. But to call it ‘just a bigger iPad’ is like calling the Millennium Falcon ‘just a bigger falcon,'” Pierce writes. “In making it bigger, Apple made the iPad Pro different. This is Cupertino’s attempt to prove a tablet can replace and outgun your laptop. Perhaps more importantly, it is Apple’s best idea about how to give you a tablet that is more than a slightly bigger version of your big smartphone. This tablet does things your phone and your laptop can’t do. Are they solutions in search of a problem? Perhaps. But the iPad Pro is the best tablet, and the best case for tablets, anyone’s ever made.”
Read more in the full review – highly recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Pierce gets it.
SEE ALSO:
Horace Dediu reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: Unlike anything we’ve ever seen before – November 11, 2015
Ben Bajarin reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: ‘The start of something new’ – November 11, 2015
Is Apple’s epic iPad Pro for you? – November 11, 2015
Gruber reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: A MacBook replacement for many
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Mossberg reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: Graphics folks will love it, but I’m sticking with my iPad Air – November 11, 2015
The Verge reviews Apple’s iPad Pro: Could this replace my MacBook? – November 11, 2015
I just picked up my fully loaded iPad Pro today from the local Apple Store after ordering it online. The easiest way to think of the iPad Pro is to imagine that you simply tore the screen off a MacBook Pro of similar size. Outside of that; that’s where the similarities end. Set up for the iPad Pro is the status quo iPad set up chronology. The faster processor, wireless, and much much better speaker system is evident the first time you crank up the volume on this iPad Pro. My primary reason for purchasing this iPad Pro was to give me an additional screen in my home office where I monitor stocks, stock trading, news, and online messaging. The regular iPad is very nice; the iPad Pro is extremely nice and the larger picture is much easier when it comes to reading messages stock quotes and looking at other items as they come across on the Internet. While many people can’t justify getting the iPad Pro right now, I think within the next month people will figure out new uses for the iPad Pro.
I am not a graphics designer; nor do I work with autoCAD or any of the other architectural engineering software products. I can certainly see where the pencil and the appropriate drafting/design software would be ideal on the iPad Pro. I’ll let the experts in that field give you their opinions and thoughts on the new iPad Pro.
PS- I arrived today at the Apple Store 30 minutes after it opened. The salesperson I spoke to told me they had already sold 200 iPad pros in the last 30 minutes. I guess that could be considered an indication of the early adopter factor.
Bottom line, I think you’ll find an extra screen for your office at home or at work to come in very handy. The unique utilization of this larger format iPad is simply in its infancy. Beginning today we will find out what the true uses of the new iPad are.
congrats!
I tryed to get one.. But the pencil is availible in 3-4 weeks 🙁
Dont want to get it without the pencil.
I want the full impact when i play with it first ..
Ill wait till they are both availible at the same time.
Thank you for the review of this new product, Bill. Coming from you, a regular commenter here on MDN, it somehow means so much more than from, say, scriveners like Walt Mossberg, who reveres the typewriter overmuch.
Its not a solution in search if a problem.
There are tons of people out there who would like to have the ability to creat professional content using tablets… And Ipad pro is the first step in this realm.
For me personally.. Im looking forward to pro level adobe Photoshop and afterFX type applications , 3d modeling and animation applications
It will be so sweet !
This thing is gonna be huge…it’s the perfect educational tablet- reading full size text, writing, drawing, attach a keyboard when needed… if they can get the price down a little this will be the standard.
I’ve used the iPad 1,3 and Air to make professional context for years. The dumb idea that this is a “consumer” or “content” device has always been a fiction of an unimaginative tech press looking for ways to categorize and pigeonhole the truly wondrous. The iPad Pro is a leap forward for every way to use an iPad!
I’m surprised no one has complained about Apple releasing the iPad Pro without the Pencil being available–it won’t be released until some time in December! There must have been a mix up somewhere, since Apple and the press have quietly led us all to believe the Pencil would be available the same time as the iPad Pro. I’m sure this will slow people down from ordering it quite a bit, I’m certainly not getting one until the Pencil is available.
Very pissed they didn’t ship the pencil with the pro. Totally lame on Cook’s part.
I picked my fully loaded ipadPro from the store last night. Very happy with the tablet. I got the chance to try a 3rd party keyboard/case at the store which was well built; I was very happy for an entire 2 minutes until I asked the Apple rep, “How do I type in portrait mode?” She explained how I can have pages show me the whole page in device landscape mode. She simply could not understand why I would want to be able to type in portrait mode. I asked if Apple’s own keyboard (when available) will be limited to landscape mode only and she just did not know; they have not seen it or had any training on the device. I have not seen anything on the Apple website for the keyboard to suggest their keyboard will support portrait mode 🙁
I happily returned the keyboard/case right away.
I NOW know the right case for this beauty is a case that covers both back and front of it and very importantly allows it to stand in both portrait and landscape mode at multiple inclines. I have a spare Apple bluetooth keyboard so those moments when I need a keyboard for extended periods of typing.
Luckily, there are iPad Pro cases that provides stand capability in both L/P modes.
Jonny: your team screwed up with the keyboard design.
Okay, just have to throw this out there –
Who else wants a Millennium Falcon case for their iPad Pro now?
🙂
From a lot of comments I have read, the only real negative anyone can really come up with for the iPad Pro as a replacement for a laptop is that the iOS version of Safari doesn’t play well with a lot of websites, particularly people’s critical business sites. There was a fairly interesting thread in a discussion on LinkedIn in response to Tim Cook’s statement ” I don’t know why anyone would buy a PC”.
As it turns out, a lot of people have tried using an iPad and it won’t work with what they need, mainly because of browser incompatibility. In that discussion, most people have actually bought Surface Pros and are perfectly happy with them, and they do what they need.
I think if Apple really wants the iPad Pro to succeed, they should really build an iPad Pro specific version of iOS Safari that works the same as the Mac version. The hardware is powerful enough to support it.
Why would you buy a PC? If you create lots of documents. If you use complex spreadsheets. If you work across multiple apps. If you make films. If you run a business. If you need to print. If you need to manage your mail. If you have lots of data. If you need to back things up permanently. If you need to connect devices.
… if you actually do any work.
And, increasingly, it looks like it WILL be a PC and not a Mac which is rapidly becoming too unreliable for business use.