With the recent changes, Apple seems indeed to try to strengthen the iPad as a platform. Hardware-wise, the new iPad Pro 12.9" with the new keyboard stand seems

With the recent changes, Apple seems indeed to try to strengthen the iPad as a platform. Hardware-wise, the new iPad Pro 12.9" with the new keyboard stand seems to pretty much equal, if not superior to the also refreshed MacBook air. It even has two USB-C ports, though with less versatility. Ironically the main hardware missing in comparison is the headphone jack. The ARM chip in the iPad should compare well with the MacBook, only the limited ram could be a cons. But where iPadOS lacks significantly behind MacOS is the software. And this is based on the AppStore rules. Applications are limited in their capabilities which would be natural on a "computer". With "Files", applications can finally exchange data, but that still has complexities for the user and is less natural than it works on the Mac. The biggest elephant in the room is the missing ability to do any real software development on the iPad. One might say that the software developers are the minority of the users and that is correct, but the software developers are the critical group for a platform which creates the software which all the other users can use. While the AppStore on the Mac has grown over time, just look how large the software universe outside the AppStore is, to get an idea, how important this is for the Mac platform. Not even counting the number of users, which wouldn't qualify as software developers, but are running a few scripts here and there for special task, either written by themselves or grabbed from the internet and modified to their needs. And yes, sometimes you really need a shell. It will be interesting to watch what gets shown for iPadOS 14. If the iPad should go further into the Mac space, some significant changes need to be announced. The trackpad addition goes in the right direction, but does not address the points I mentioned above.