Snippet: Standing Still. iPad Pro 2018 ☇

Thomas Verschoren (via Gabe Weatherhead):

But, even with all those new bells and whistles, it’s still the same iPad running the same iOS. It’s an iPad. A device that was perfect when it was released. And then kinda rested on its laurels and iterated with safe bets and predictable improvements.

I’ve been trying to gather why I’ve been so underwhelmed about the new iPad Pros released last week. It’s not that they’re terrible devices, but that they really don’t make a compelling argument for me to replace my iPad Air 2 for work or iPad (5th generation) for personal use. The hardware improvements are certainly amazing, and the new designs are quite compelling, but fundamentally, they aren’t going to allow me to do more at this point in time.

While I would probably be equally disappointed if the new iPads signaled a shift to something new, rendering all prior models obsolete, I think it comes down to software. Even before last week’s announcement, the general consensus are that the iPads are extremely powerful and often hamstrung by iOS. It’s a good start of an operating system, but there are so many little things that can really take advantage of the iPad. The fix is for iOS on the iPad to diverge from iPhones and not to migrate macOS to a tablet.