Apple’s software strategy matters more than ever as the world’s most valuable company has broad reach – over 1.8 billion Apple devices are in use – that can affect virtually everyone, directly or indirectly (App Tracking Transparency for one example).
Lauren Goode and Brenda Stolyar for Wired:
It’s what keeps customers “locked in” to Apple hardware. It includes Apple’s fast-growing, multibillion-dollar services business. Every time Apple makes a tweak to its App Store, whether it’s limiting advertising tracking tech in iOS or evolving its content moderation policies, the company’s decisions are scrutinized—because its software has that much influence over our lives.
Many people will probably tune in to Monday morning’s WWDC keynote address for the small changes to iOS that will liven up their older iPhones or the multitasking features that might turn their iPad into something more akin to a MacPad…
Apple’s iPad has been creeping closer to “real computer” status—newer models of the tablet even feature desktop-grade chips—but the inability to freely move or resize app windows has always made the iPad feel more like a giant iPhone. Could iPadOS 16 finally change this? Seems so. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith noticed last week that an early version of Apple’s latest web-browsing framework “added infrastructure for a ‘multitasking mode’ on iOS that sure looks like it’s a system toggle that enables freely-resizable windows.”
So iPads might soon have M-class chips, decent accessory keyboards, and new software that supports more customizable app placement and sizing. Sounds like a MacBook with a touchscreen!
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, the MacPad rears its pretty head once again. Depending on the iteration, it’s an interesting idea, if we don’t say so ourselves:
Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.
Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.
Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have 12.9-inch iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event last fall. How many more 12-inch iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too?
— MacDailyNews, January 7, 2017
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