The Problem’s Never the Hardware
Today’s Apple event has come and gone, and in its wake are some new iPads, a slightly saner iPad lineup, and some questions.
Right before debuting new iPad Pros, John Ternus said that Apple was “gonna crush the limits of what you can do on iPad.”
As nice as the new OLED display looks, and no matter how powerful the new M4 may be, the iPad’s problem in 2024 — or another year for that matter — is the software. Fourteen years into its lifespan and the iPad still can’t seem to fully shake off its iPhone OS roots. Almost everything Apple has attempted to bolt atop iPadOS to make it more useful for more people has come with weird tradeoffs. Look no further than something like Stage Manager, or that just today Apple announced a version of Final Cut that can use external drives for project storage.
I fully understand that iPadOS has to serve an incredibly wide range of customers, from little kids to people want to earn their living using just a tablet, and I don’t envy the folks at Apple who are trying to move the platform forward without alienating a wide swath of the iPad’s user base.
