A few observations and thoughts on the dynamics of the Apple enthusiast community in the narrative of the past 8 years evolution of the iPad and Mac as Apple platforms. A bit of attention paid to the role of podcasters/publishers in how the narrative was created and how it evolved, how it is still evolving. Not so much about the tech as it is about a community’s tension, excitement and concerns as it grappled with potential disruption. Warning! This post is very much of the inside baseball variety as it pertains to the Apple enthusiast user “community”. No, really, inside baseball here. But I thin... beardystarstuff.net

@Denny great write up. The notion that iPadOS needs to essentially be Mac OS in order for there to be value for the hardware is misguided. Anecdotally the iPad usage I have seen in the last few years have exceeded from just Netflix gadget. I imagine iterative improvements to stage manager and things like that coming in the next version of iPadOS.

I bought a family member an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard (she’s been a windows user since forever) as her main machine and she is enamored about how she just doesn’t have to put effort into her computing needs, and she didn’t realize how much effort she was putting previously even with her OS comfort level in Windows. The iPad Pro will last her for a significant amount of years and the stability will carry on with her general computing needs.

I still wish for an iPad mini with full screen stage manager support when connected to a monitor. I don’t need to be full time iPad computing but occasionally plugging in to a monitor with some decent windowing support with a keyboard and mouse would give me the best of both tablet and general computing machine. Alas, I may cave and get the 11 inch air if the mini doesn’t get those enhancements soon.

@jagibson Yeah, people seem to really forget how much time can go into maintaining Windows or Mac and with the iPad it's next to nothing. And, once a person becomes truly familiar with the OS there are quite a few advanced features if they choose to use them.

I do think we'll see an iPad Mini with an M chip and support for an external monitor. Late this year? Early next?

@Denny Hi Denny, I read this piece and your other 3 recent iPad posts this month, enjoyed them all. I think I agree overall. I also follow some of the iPad pundit podcasts and am enthused about both iPad and Mac. I've gone back and forth over the years. iPad has truly grown more capable and it still works for me for @ 95% of tasks, maybe 100% at this point. I still prefer it as mainly "just a tablet." But I've been again leaning into desktop mode and, wow, I could really see myself enjoying a mini for tablet mode and then using Stage Manager and ext. display for desktop mode! I'll likely try that setup with a mouse in the near future with my M1 iPad Air. But I also want to keep things as simple and modular as possible.

About the iPad pundit narrative, I can see where you're coming from. The M1 for Mac in 2020 was a true inflection point. I myself noted around then that Christopher Lawley also briefly switched from iPad to Mac. Indeed, like you said, meanwhile Apple also made iPad more capable, improving multitasking, interaction, and adding pro apps. Yet the pundits keep moving the goalposts. Now I suspect Xcode on iPad would be too little too late. Nothing short of macOS both optimized for touch and maintaining mouse/KB UI can save the iPad Pro now...but I wouldn't be surprised if somehow that still wasn't enough to make iPad Pro-enough. The iPad isn't meant to be a Mac and likely never will be.