The iPad originated as a touch-first computer and remains touch-first 13 years later An interesting aspect of the ongoing discussion about the iPad is that it's primarily from the perspective of Mac "power" users. Which is to say, long-time users that have been using the Mac and are most comfortable with its feature set and interface. These are users that have and want access to the most open-ended computing experience possible. They're very efficient with their Macs and have time-tested workflows with apps they know well. In terms of understanding the iPad as a broadly used computing platform, it's... beardystarstuff.net

@Denny TBH I feel like the biggest risk to the iPad would be if Apple starts junking it up with the “pro user” features that subset of Apple pundits keep insisting it needs, despite their use cases being a vanishingly small sliver of the overall market.

@petebrown I am also in this boat. I used to be upset that the iPad did so little, but as they have added more functionality, I find myself wishing it were simpler again.

@Denny the iPad sells more units than the Mac most of the time. I think there’s less disagreement than you might think— the question has almost never been is the iPad a good personal computer, but instead, will the iPad ever be a platform of choice to do your work if your work is computer work. And it’s really in this latter area where eight years later, the Mac hardware has become significantly more iPad like faster than the iPad software became Mac like in terms of capability. The battery life and weight advantages that make up a lot of the portability improvements have outmatched the software for productivity if you use an iPad to do your work. My iPad has been good enough to be my main computer if I’m not working for a long time. It replaces my parents “home computer” a long time ago. Where it has not succeeded is as the platform you’d reach for if your job means using a computer for 30+ hours a week.

@jmanes @petebrown I've been impressed with their restraint thus far. Though it bothers the "power" users that complain new features take too long I'm thankful that my dad, mom, aunt and others are able to use the iPad in 2023 with the same ease as the original iPad in 2010. They've had to adjust to some of the smaller, more iterative changes but they have no clue that the more advanced features were ever added. 13 years in and I trust that they'll continue finding that balance.

@jsonbecker For my use case it's actually worked out very well as my sole work computer but obviously every use case is different. Having the Affinity apps has been key for about 50% of my work. The remaining is setting up and maintaining static websites with Textastic. Then a good bit of data entry with Safari and Numbers. And of course Files app gets quite a bit of use. But that's it for work.

I occassionaly have clients that need delivery of Word or PPT files so I'll create in Pages or Keynote then check the export in Word or PPT.

Sure, there are still gaps and there are use cases where it won't work. But I suspect that those gaps are smaller year-to-year.

@Denny I make ordering decisions for a company of over 50 people, for example. There’s not one job at my company that could be done with an iPad without jumping through challenging hoops. I think it’s significantly more atypical that for work it works. There’s a reason it’s basically never the sole device deployed in corporate environments.

@jsonbecker No worries on the double reply! I have zero experience in a corporate or large company environment. Well, not true, my first job was K-Mart in 1986. Oh, and I did a brief stint in Apple Retail around 2001. 😉

But all my relevant experience with this kind of work has either been in a small non-profit setting less than 10 employees or, more recently, working freelance.

I suppose that lack of experience in that environment leaves me ignorant of the requirements/needs there. And actually, thinking about it, most all of the complaining I've heard is coming from the creative/pundits is very much about how the iPad doesn't work for them as independent freelancers.

I've not seen much at all about the iPad in corporate/company environments. Which says something about the lack of comprehensive, quality Apple journalism I think. 20 years ago a publication like MacWorld would have written about it. Today it's just the rumormill and a barrage of affiliate link product posts.

@Denny Perhaps the real problem is people's understanding of what is personal computing.

@Denny I don’t think you don’t hear about it because of bad journalism. You don’t hear about it because enterprise deployment (or even small and medium business deployment) of iPads for work is non-existent. There used to be press releases about the hundreds of apps IBM was going to write for large scale iPad for work— went nowhere. iPad in schools for kids was a huge thing with lots of reporting— the Chromebooks fully reduced that market by like 90%. You’re not hearing about it because iPads are actually exceptionally rare in those environments, and the downstream lament about the iPad not being a professional computer is really just one tail of nearly everyone coming to that conclusion.