The iPad looks more and more like the Mac without ever reaching the “promised land”. The Mac, on the other hand, didn’t bring many features from the iPad. While I appreciate Apple’s adherence to the principle of family separation, it looks like the decision is starting to hurt the future of both products. The Mac and the iPad are at odds with each other, and I’m afraid both will eventually run into barriers created by Apple.
Can I call you Mac?
Over the past eight years of the iPad Pro era, Apple has put a lot of effort into adding “Mac-like” functionality to iPadOS. It wasn’t just copying Mac functionality, it was trying to recreate it in the context of the iPad. If it works as well as the cursor support added in 2020, it’s a success.
However, additional features are often limited or partially implemented, instead emphasizing the powerful performance of the Mac. For example, Files is similar to Finder, but with limitations. The same goes for Stage Manager. It is similar to Mac Windows, but not all features are implemented.
Even with full keyboard and trackpad support, you’ll need to take advantage of additional accessories like the Magic Keyboard to use the iPadOS closest to the MacBook. You might expect the iPad Pro to come out as a laptop, with iPadOS intact, but it never will because it invades the Mac realm.
There’s only one MacBook, no exceptions
The iPad features a more flexible ergonomic design than a laptop, but the design of the MacBook family has followed the initial appearance without major changes since the early 2010s. On the other hand, there are too many Windows laptops that break the two-rectangle laptop paradigm. These PCs offer a level of ergonomic flexibility that Macs cannot. A MacBook is just a laptop, and that’s all it has to offer.
With no keyboard or touchpad and no way to control the device, it’s hard to call it a convertible laptop. Rumor has it that Apple might finally add touchscreens to its MacBooks in a few years, but if Windows-based PC laptops didn’t have touchscreens, that would probably be a huge innovation. However, there are already too many products with touch screens. The biggest advantage of the iPad would be the Apple Pencil, but even that has a limitation that it can only be used while connecting to the iPad and drawing on the iPad screen.
Still, it’s clear that the Mac has powerful features and flexibility that the iPad or iPad Pro don’t. MacBook Air lets you do it all from anywhere in the world. Simply editing a podcast isn’t possible on the iPad Pro, and many features of the iPad Pro aren’t as powerful or useful as those of macOS.
Mac and iPad Pro, let’s take a look between the two
Sometimes, given the incredible effort Apple has put into the iPad Pro, I wonder if it’s really worth it. The addition of “Mac-like” features only added complexity for iPad users to realize that these “Mac-like” features weren’t exactly the same as the Mac’s. ‘origin.
What if Apple broke the line it created between the Mac and the iPad Pro? The current iPad Pro uses the same chip as the MacBook Air. Would it be cataclysmic if you could restart your iPad in macOS or run macOS in a virtual machine? Likewise, what if the Mac comes with a touchscreen and Apple Pencil support, and comes in a different form than existing laptops? What if the Mac offered the ergonomic flexibility that iPadOS is good for? What if there was an option to remove the keyboard from the MacBook and switch to touch mode, the very essence of the iPad?
I’m not saying you should merge macOS and iPadOS. But wouldn’t it be possible to provide better service to users if the iPad Pro could be used as a Mac and the MacBook as an iPad Pro? Of course, even in this scenario, there will still be legacy laptops running macOS and budget iPads running iPadOS.
For years, Apple pulled the iPad Pro out of nowhere. The iPad Pro will never become a Mac no matter how hard you try. Isn’t it time for Apple to break down barriers and spread the wings of the Mac and iPad Pro? Unless the Mac and iPad can leverage each other’s strengths, neither can be the best.
editor@iworld.co.kr
