With all of the fast and furious mobile investment it seems we are coming up on a major cross-roads. With Apple’s recently released iPad Pro being faster than 90%+ of all laptops out there, there is some serious power in mobile devices. Imagine what another year or two will do for that speed. Meanwhile, many users are stretching out their upgrade cycles as the power meets their needs at this stage, and many people are barely buying typical computers anymore, as long as they have one in the household.
There is still a case to be made for a “desktop” or “laptop” computer, being a full operating system with abstracted (mouse/trackpad-based) interaction. I know I don’t get very far in my work-day without having my laptop.
The interesting thing that I keep realizing though in my day-to-day usage of various computing platforms (Macbook Pro, iMac, iPad, iPhone) is that most of the time the system’s power is not what makes or breaks my usage, but rather the software and actions I’m taking on the system. For instance, coding in Xcode is painful enough on a laptop, let alone an iPad (not even possible right now). But surfing the web and other location-based tasks, iPhone or iPad win hands down as my favorite devices for those.
So if the power is equalizing, and what matters is the form factor and OS at the moment, then what I hope is cooking up in Apple’s secret labs is a super iPad (not a real name). In my mind this would come in the next year or two, and so be 1-2 processor improvements further along the road, so that the speed is a non-issue with the iPad. It would run a further refined version of iOS (13 or 14 – depending on when it is released) as it’s primary un-docked OS. But, and this is the big innovation, if they can also have MacOS installed on the device, such that it can seamlessly switch when the iPad is docked to a monitor/keyboard/mouse then I could continue to use the single device to manage all of my use-cases. Imagine even more-so if an iPhone could do this as well!! The one small pocketable computer would be your only computer no matter what your use-case is.
I agree with Tim Cook and Apple that there is no point converging the OS’s to be one super OS, that doesn’t make any sense, and it shows with the diaster that is Windows 10 from Microsoft. Rather keep both OS’s for their respective strengths. This past year they allowed the new iPad Pro to be docked to a monitor, and use a few select USB-C devices, but it is pretty limited. But it could be the beginning of feeling out such a use-case for the iPad Pro.
On the software-front, iOS solely relies on the AppStore for all software, and the Mac relies more and more on the Mac App Store for software. iCloud Documents also blurs the line between your local system (and OS) and your files. As long as your software vendor has provided apps to both the iOS and MacOS app stores, you would be able to use the same documents, hosted in iCloud or the “Files” app in iOS, to continue to work seamlessly when you are docked or undocked. Almost like how your iOS device changes its interface for CarPlay when it is plugged into your car.
For non-app store software on MacOS there would definitely be issues there, but maybe that is just a known-issue for those purchasing such a device, and such a device would drive a quicker migration to the Mac App Store than is happening currently.
For all the open source and server type software (my daily life) I’m not sure what the plan would be for those? Perhaps the device could create a special “open” sandbox for that software to run in MacOS-mode, but would be ignored in the iOS-mode? I’m not sure but I’m sure the great developers at Apple could figure out something that would allow the best of both worlds!
It seems that most of the technical hurdles have already been solved, and this now comes down to a software problem. Perhaps this is also behind being able to have iOS apps running in MacOS that Apple intro’d, at least year’s WWDC. If the software didn’t exist in the MacOS App Store, you could still use it in desktop-mode as is, but ideally the developer would make a desktop-mode version. Perhaps it even becomes a SUPER universal app format, that encompasses both desktop and mobile modes.
The iPad Pro wins for weight and battery life hands down over a MacBook, and even for the screens and such. So from a physical product stand-point, it is the superior device, especially when the speed has a few more years to gain at the rates they have been up until now. So hopefully in 2019 or 2020 the software side will be able to catch up, and I can relax with just one device for all my locations! That’s the dream, and I sure hope it comes true, and soon!!
Pysan 