Apple on Tuesday announced an insanely powerful iPad Pro that pushes the limits of what’s possible on iPad. In a new interview, the company’s marketing and hardware chiefs attempt to explain the new iPad Pro. The addition of the Apple-designed M1 chip delivers a massive leap in performance, making iPad Pro the fastest computer of its kind.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that brings extreme dynamic range to iPad Pro, offering a stunning visual experience with more true-to-life details to the most demanding HDR workflows. Cellular models with 5G deliver even faster wireless connectivity when on the go, and to provide users with pro-level throughput for high-speed accessories, iPad Pro now includes support for Thunderbolt. Additionally, an all-new Ultra Wide front camera enables Center Stage, a new feature that automatically keeps users perfectly framed for even more engaging video calls. The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning Friday, April 30th, on apple.com, and will be available in the second half of May.
Andrew Griffin for The Independent:
The iPad Pro is now a tablet that some have argued is now seemingly too powerful – so fast it leads to questions about what it is really trying to do… But Apple’s executives – its marketing head Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak, and its hardware chief John Ternus, who speak to The Independent soon after the iPad’s unveiling – say they know exactly what the iPad is. It’s just that it might not be what you think…
Joz and Ternus talk to The Independent in the wake of a busy event that saw the release of a whole host of new Apple products… But the headliner was the iPad Pro, which as well as the M1 chip also includes a new miniLED display that it calls Liquid Retina XDR, 5G, vast new storage options that go all the way up to 2TB and new connectivity options including an improved Thunderbolt port. The additions address many of the complaints about the existing iPad Pro, and also make it look a lot more like a Mac computer, or at least a rival to one…
“We don’t think about well, we’re going to limit what this device can do because we don’t want to step on the toes of this [other] one or anything like that,” [Ternus] says. “We’re pushing to make the best Mac we can make; we’re pushing to make the best iPad we can make. And people choose… A lot of people have run both. And they have workflows that span both – some people, for a particular task, prefer one versus the other… But we’re just going to keep making them better. And we’re not going to get all caught up in, you know, theories around merging or anything like that.”
Joz refers to the extra headroom that the power gives developers; this is a computer aimed at pushing the envelope and the boundaries, making extra space that developers can find new ways to occupy with their own apps. “We provided that performance even before the need was there, if you will,” he says. “When you create that capability, that kind of ceiling, developers will use it. Customers will use it… It needs to exist first, right? You can’t have an app that requires more performance than the system’s capable of – then it doesn’t work. So you need to have the system be ahead of the apps.
MacDailyNews Take: The new 12.9-inch iPad Pro is like a slab that fell off an alien craft by mistake. Apple found one, mass duplicated it, put it into environmentally-responsible packaging, slapped a ridiculously low price on it for what you get, and will begin taking orders for it on Friday, April 30th.