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This is starting to feel like Apple and Microsoft are really starting to switch places like some bizarro world. Admittedly, this is Daring Fireball and not Appl

This is starting to feel like Apple and Microsoft are really starting to switch places like some bizarro world. Admittedly, this is Daring Fireball and not Apple itself, but wasn't Apple supposed to always talk about what their products do, why it's important, and not what the specs are? Here, a huge portion of the write-up of the iPad Pro is the performance of the hardware. Was anybody really complaining that their iPad wasn't fast enough? Was that holding back developers? (honest question, maybe it was, I'm not sure). Then there is this statment "Anyone tying themselves in knots looking for a specific target audience for the iPad Pro is going about it the wrong way. There is no single target audience. Is the iPad Pro meant for office workers in the enterprise? Professional artists creating content? Casual users playing games, watching movies, and reading? The answer is simply “Yes”." Isn't this often the kiss of death? Not recognizing a single target audience for your product? The original iPad had a target, all be it a hugely diverse one. It was for people who wanted to consume content on a larger screen device than their phone, but wanted something simpler than a laptop.

prodmerc 11y ago
The iPad Pro is an overpriced tablet for all the people who bought overpriced MacBook Pros. I think Apple still knows their target audience :-)
Silhouette 11y ago
Was anybody really complaining that their iPad wasn't fast enough? Was that holding back developers? When combined with Apple's effectively forced upgrade policy with iOS, yes, many people have complained that their iPad is no longer fast enough, even if it was just fine before the OS update. App developers are forced to collaborate in that exercise by Apple deciding which versions of iOS (and visual styles etc.) apps must support to go into the App Store. Probably the most serious example so far was people with 2nd or 3rd generation iPads, who were effectively forced to update to at least iOS 7 because of app compatibility issues. Significant numbers of users appear to have experienced serious performance problems afterwards (just google any plausible complaint wording) and to have reported varying degrees of success in ever resolving them.
- pedalpete 11y ago
  That's an interesting perspective, but that is essentially Apple breaking everything for everybody and forcing obsolescence of their products. I consider that slightly different from "I can't do task x on my iPad because it isn't powerful enough".
  - Silhouette 11y ago
    That's an interesting perspective, but that is essentially Apple breaking everything for everybody and forcing obsolescence of their products. In practice, yes, that is very much the result. Sadly this seems to be SOP for Apple across the board in recent years, but it's particularly bad with the mobile devices. The thing is, people don't notice the cost of their shiny new iPhone so much because it's obscured by ongoing contracts with their network. Tablets and laptops don't enjoy the same luxury, which I suspect is a large part of the reason tablet sales figures have been less impressive since the early new-shiny rush for a few years after the first iPad arrived. I consider that slightly different from "I can't do task x on my iPad because it isn't powerful enough". Fair point, but I think it starts to become relevant for much the same reasons if you want the iPad to be taken seriously as a laptop competitor. At that point, it doesn't just have to be powerful enough to run toy apps today, it also has to be powerful enough to run serious productivity applications tomorrow. Earlier generation iPads -- even ones just a few years old and well within the normally expected working lifetime of a professional computer -- demonstrably didn't have enough power to do that with the combination of hardware and software being offered.

prodmerc 11y ago

The iPad Pro is an overpriced tablet for all the people who bought overpriced MacBook Pros. I think Apple still knows their target audience :-)

Silhouette 11y ago

Was anybody really complaining that their iPad wasn't fast enough? Was that holding back developers? When combined with Apple's effectively forced upgrade policy with iOS, yes, many people have complained that their iPad is no longer fast enough, even if it was just fine before the OS update. App developers are forced to collaborate in that exercise by Apple deciding which versions of iOS (and visual styles etc.) apps must support to go into the App Store. Probably the most serious example so far was people with 2nd or 3rd generation iPads, who were effectively forced to update to at least iOS 7 because of app compatibility issues. Significant numbers of users appear to have experienced serious performance problems afterwards (just google any plausible complaint wording) and to have reported varying degrees of success in ever resolving them.

pedalpete 11y ago
That's an interesting perspective, but that is essentially Apple breaking everything for everybody and forcing obsolescence of their products. I consider that slightly different from "I can't do task x on my iPad because it isn't powerful enough".
- Silhouette 11y ago
  That's an interesting perspective, but that is essentially Apple breaking everything for everybody and forcing obsolescence of their products. In practice, yes, that is very much the result. Sadly this seems to be SOP for Apple across the board in recent years, but it's particularly bad with the mobile devices. The thing is, people don't notice the cost of their shiny new iPhone so much because it's obscured by ongoing contracts with their network. Tablets and laptops don't enjoy the same luxury, which I suspect is a large part of the reason tablet sales figures have been less impressive since the early new-shiny rush for a few years after the first iPad arrived. I consider that slightly different from "I can't do task x on my iPad because it isn't powerful enough". Fair point, but I think it starts to become relevant for much the same reasons if you want the iPad to be taken seriously as a laptop competitor. At that point, it doesn't just have to be powerful enough to run toy apps today, it also has to be powerful enough to run serious productivity applications tomorrow. Earlier generation iPads -- even ones just a few years old and well within the normally expected working lifetime of a professional computer -- demonstrably didn't have enough power to do that with the combination of hardware and software being offered.