"The iPad has had amazing performance for awhile, so why is the M1 a game changer? Because it’s finally in a machine we can actually do things on.” This quote

"The iPad has had amazing performance for awhile, so why is the M1 a game changer? Because it’s finally in a machine we can actually do things on.” This quote drives home well how the iPad feels, well... Perennially not-quite-there, for anything other than a certain kind of digital artist (but not most people who work in 3D, since the App Store doesn't have good general-purpose 3D modeling apps, and if it's not in the App Store, well...). When Apple eventually releases a competitor to the Surface Pro — that is, a tablet that runs macOS with a detachable keyboard (and Apple already has a great detachable keyboard!) — people will lose their minds and whatever that thing is called will fly off the shelves, just like people are so excited about the M1 when it's essentially just the chip from the iPad running a more-useful OS. Until then, the iPad will still trundle along, supported by those artists who can use it and the hardcore Apple enthusiasts. But it feels like the iPad's stuck in a weird corner where they're too much of an appliance and not enough of a computer for most people, and trying to iterate iPad OS to be less appliance-y seems a bit pointless when macOS can now natively run iPad apps, and merely lacks hardware that includes a touchscreen. Plenty of other manufacturers have shown they can put a touchscreen on a laptop, and sometimes even make you buy the keyboard separately as an accessory. I'd bet Apple eventually ends up there with macOS as well; and if Apple sells a touchscreen computing device that runs macOS, I think it's curtains for iPad OS. (They might still call it an iPad, of course. And hopefully give macOS a more touch-friendly UI! But it'll be the end of the iPad-as-appliance, which I think many of us here will be thankful for. And I think it'll sell better, too.)