I know the iPad gets a lot of side eye and outright derision on this site, but I don’t think the iPad is going anywhere. Most authors who write articles like this simply don’t understand how iPads are actually used in a productive environment and what makes people who use them as their main machine really like them. I have both mac and my iPad pro and mostly I live on my iPad pro. What I need the iPad for would not be solved by a touchscreen mac. The MacBook Neo is not truly competition for the iPad because they’re different tools and anybody buying a Neo to replace their iPad wasn’t using the right tool to begin with. The less expensive iPad compared to a Mac made some people pick the wrong tool for cost reasons, so in that sense it looks like competition. And in that sense it looks like the Neo is the shiny new object dislodging the iPad. The question might be how many people who bought an iPad really wanted a mac and what does that do to the iPad market? That is an open question but not for the reasons pundits typically write about.
Or in a mobile environment. One of the biggest drawbacks of using a MacBook is the keyboard. You can’t use a laptop when you are walking, or have no place to set it down.
Besides, why would Apple want to phase out iPads and eliminate the chance to sell you a MacBook and an iPad?
As if iPad owners will all be ready to dump their one device for two that, with assured perfection, will absolutely exactly replicate all functions currently in their one device, giving them also no extra cost or workflow friction.
If all it takes these days to get a posting in Macworld is a fever dream dressed up in end-of-tomorrow speculations, sign me up.
I’ve even used some of those “transformer” type devices where the keyboard folds all the way around the back (something that, AFAIK, isn’t rumored from Apple), and they’re heavy and clunky. There’s a really good use case for a device that’s similar to an iPhone, but larger.
A touchscreen laptop MIGHT do a number on some of their iPad keyboard sales, if the touchscreen laptop can also run the apps people want.
This is a genuine inquiry. What are the anticipated advantages of using a touchscreen Mac over a traditional Mac? I do not touch the screen of my iPad when it is connected to the Magic Keyboard. I only touch the screen when I’m using it in tablet mode. What are the perceived benefits of using a touchscreen Mac?
Having a touchscreen on a laptop where you can flip it around and use it like a tablet can be surprisingly useful, even for apps that aren’t designed for the touch interface. And having it be able to spin around and fold flat gives you a much more portable experience than carrying a laptop around, although it’s bulkier and heavier.
With a Mac, a touchscreen like that would also be the first step in allowing an Apple Pencil.
I think the tech prognosticators are hoping for this sort of device, not just a standard fold-open Mac with a touch panel. And I don’t see Apple making one of these anytime in the near future. It would be a Mac that’s trying to be a Mac and an iPad, and probably not being as good at either function as a dedicated device.
Not to be the contrarian as someone who’s been using an iPad primarily for 10+ years, but it continues to disappoint year-after-year. I want only one device. Each WWDC I hope that they’ll unlock something that allows me to get rid of the laptop, and each year it doesn’t happen. Though they do give us just enough to keep wishing “maybe next year.”
I’m considering this BraxTech open_slate which will run full-on linux and have pencil support. May first try a refurbished ThinkPad Yoga. But what I really want is to keep running macOS and turn it into a tablet when useful.
That’s not iPad’s fault. It’s not designed to be a full computer experience. I just wish it was.
I concede that, my initial thought was the promotion was for a folding iPhone and a touchscreen Mac. Certainly, we could argue whether Apple should make a tablet-computer (or a computer-tablet). In retrospect, as you suggest, I would raise two concerns in such a case. One is to have a smooth, functioning ability to turn off one or the other platform paradigm (tablet/computer) as needed to promote the advantages of the other platform paradigm. The other is, you can try all you want to convince me otherwise but, when I want a real computer experience anymore, I want at least a 27in monitor, an ergonomic keyboard, and a trackball. Be damned if anyone will sell me this in a 12in tablet-computer.
Cramming a “full” computer experience into a 12in tablet screen (or smaller) is far away from anything I’d enjoy using. But, to each their own.
Anyway, what is stopping you from getting a macMini and doing remote log in from your iPad? I hear that such an arrangement can work well.
Logging into a 27” iMac from a 13” MacBook, many years ago, wasn’t pleasant experience. As I recall my choices were shrink the remote display down to fit my screen or scroll my view of the iMac to the area I needed to click. I finally gave up and put a used 21.5” inch iMac on my desk just for remote Mac/Windows sessions.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. The problem with the example shown is that a device like that would be extremely unwieldy to use as a tablet unless the screen detaches. In that case, the only meaningful difference between that and an iPad with Magic Keyboard is the operating system.
You and I agree about the potential for making painful choices. Which is however not to say that using an iPad for remote login to a macMini cannot be done, in this case as an option to explore for those who want their iPadOS system to offer them macOS applications. Indeed, if the spirit moves me over the coming months, I might be on board for doing such an exploration as I transition my older MBP.
Right. That’s the issue I had with the device like that which I used for a time.
This is the tech equivalent of “if you give a mouse a cookie.” I realy don’t think anybody wants a straight-up touchscreen Mac. They want a touchscreen Mac, but then a Mac where the screen can flip around and be a tablet, but then of course they’ll need Pencil support because the keyboard is under the screen, but then it’ll be too inconvenient to hold to use that way so the monitor will need to detach, but then the OS will need to be adapted to work with Pencil since many macOS touch targets are way too small, and then we’ll be back to the iPad again.
There are stop-offs in the middle of that progression that work for some people. But they’re likely not mass-market enough for Apple to consider them worth doing.
I think the reason for the eye-rolling is that there is a subgroup of iPad users arguing that it can replace a MacBook. Often what they really meant is that even though there are tradeoffs in what it can do the iPad is less expensive so they are OK with that tradeoff.
The real answer is that the mission for an iPad is very different from the mission for a MacBook. Cost aside - there are many mobile, retail, and industrial situations for which the iPad is superior to a MacBook at any price.
There are also many situations requiring complex software configurations where a MacBook is superior to an iPad at any price.
So it really just depends on your mission. For some iPad alone is best, for some MacBook alone is best, and some users with multiple missions would be best served with both.
Indeed! I’d take it further. If I could justify it, I would own a 14" MBP, a 13" iPad Pro and an 11" iPad Pro. They each serve specific purposes better than the other. But, that is a bit extravagant!
Not to get too hung up on which device is “better”…with each having M(whatever number) chips, more Ram, iCloud, etc…how about (profits be damned) just letting the user dual boot whatever they own?
There are things you can do on a Mac that I could never imagine Apple bringing to the iPad. For example, I’ve installed Parallels on my MacBook so I can run Ubuntu.
I own both because they both fit different needs. I love sitting down with my iPad on a comfy chair and reading some technical document. Of course this could also be done with a MacBook perched on my lap, but just not as good. This is also something I do for work, keeping up with technology is important and the iPad plays a key role in that for me.
