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I think part of the problem is that When the iPad was released, Apple (and Steve Jobs specifically) had a different vision of what the iPad was going to be. It

I think part of the problem is that When the iPad was released, Apple (and Steve Jobs specifically) had a different vision of what the iPad was going to be. It wasn’t supposed to be an “everything” computer. It was supposed to be an appliance. I think if Steve had lived another decade (or longer) the Mac would be dead, wholesale replaced with iOS. iOS and iPasOS are very much the kind of managed environment that Steve preferred. He wanted to give users the whole package. If you could mess things up by getting to an error state or not know how to solve a problem, they failed. I am pleased that we didn’t go down that road. I think though, that is why the iPad is still not entirely sure what its role is in the lineup.

RandomThoughts3 2y ago
No need to be this charitable. Apple knows perfectly they could converge the top of the tablet range and the Macbook. They do it more and more to cut cost on the bill of material. They don’t do it because they know it would lower their overall sales and the lack of competition doesn’t push them to do so. Why ship something better when you can keep selling both a tablet and a laptop?
- walterbell 2y ago
  > Why ship something better when you can keep selling both a tablet and a laptop? Why be excellent when you can be mediocre? Someone at Apple must have the business imagination to monetize unscheduled customer demand for an existing product.
goosedragons 2y ago
Steve Jobs wanted to make the Mac an appliance too. It's part of why the 128K was kinda trash and had no internal expansion. It wasn't until he was forced out that they released the Mac II and SE and not being so fixated on being an appliance. Modern Apple is too addicted to low-effort high return App Store revenue and too worried about the iPad eating Mac sales to make it an actually good product instead of a nice one for niche workflows.
- dangus 2y ago
  Dissections of “what is wrong with the iPad” have become so tiring at this point, I kind of wish that Apple would just rename it to “artist tablet and media pad” so that people would stop complaining that it’s not macOS. Sure, you are right: Apple loves iPadOS and macOS for having closed App Store ecosystems that funnel 30% of that entire economy to their coffers. But at the same time the discussion has become tiring because it’s a bunch of people who aren’t iPad customers telling iPad customers what they should want in their device. The vast majority of iPad owners are just using it to derp around with entertainment apps and shove Baby Shark in front of their toddler. The tiny sliver of power users that buy the pro models are in creative fields like art and video where the iPad’s shortcomings on the “computer” side don’t really matter. An iPad with ProCreate is then best artist’s tablet on the market and that’s pretty much the end of that story. At some point we should just let the iPad be what it is.
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    It doesn't have to run macOS. Frankly I hate macOS. It just needs to not be crippled. Let people run what they want and give it a usable file manager. Yes, it's great for sketching, entertainment apps and most web browsing. But if you go outside those use cases at all it's a horrible frustrating experience. Seriously, there are tasks that are easier to do on an Amazon Fire. That should not be the case when an iPad is multitudes more powerful and more expensive. It's a nice product for the handful of approved tasks but even for those its really easy to run into problems especially if ANYTHING requires managing more than 2 files or features from multiple apps. The iPad could be a lot more and a lot more peoples one device.
    - dangus 2y ago
      I own it for my kitchen browsing and YouTube. I paid less than $400 because of those limitations. I just want a recipe and content appliance that is small, cheap, and has good battery life. That’s why I think this is tiring…the people who want it to be more than it is should just take their money elsewhere. Samsung will happily sell you an iPad clone that has more power user capability and is a great product.
supportengineer 2y ago
How would anyone (including Apple) create Apple software without Mac?

RandomThoughts3 2y ago

No need to be this charitable. Apple knows perfectly they could converge the top of the tablet range and the Macbook. They do it more and more to cut cost on the bill of material. They don’t do it because they know it would lower their overall sales and the lack of competition doesn’t push them to do so. Why ship something better when you can keep selling both a tablet and a laptop?

walterbell 2y ago
> Why ship something better when you can keep selling both a tablet and a laptop? Why be excellent when you can be mediocre? Someone at Apple must have the business imagination to monetize unscheduled customer demand for an existing product.

goosedragons 2y ago

Steve Jobs wanted to make the Mac an appliance too. It's part of why the 128K was kinda trash and had no internal expansion. It wasn't until he was forced out that they released the Mac II and SE and not being so fixated on being an appliance. Modern Apple is too addicted to low-effort high return App Store revenue and too worried about the iPad eating Mac sales to make it an actually good product instead of a nice one for niche workflows.

dangus 2y ago
Dissections of “what is wrong with the iPad” have become so tiring at this point, I kind of wish that Apple would just rename it to “artist tablet and media pad” so that people would stop complaining that it’s not macOS. Sure, you are right: Apple loves iPadOS and macOS for having closed App Store ecosystems that funnel 30% of that entire economy to their coffers. But at the same time the discussion has become tiring because it’s a bunch of people who aren’t iPad customers telling iPad customers what they should want in their device. The vast majority of iPad owners are just using it to derp around with entertainment apps and shove Baby Shark in front of their toddler. The tiny sliver of power users that buy the pro models are in creative fields like art and video where the iPad’s shortcomings on the “computer” side don’t really matter. An iPad with ProCreate is then best artist’s tablet on the market and that’s pretty much the end of that story. At some point we should just let the iPad be what it is.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  It doesn't have to run macOS. Frankly I hate macOS. It just needs to not be crippled. Let people run what they want and give it a usable file manager. Yes, it's great for sketching, entertainment apps and most web browsing. But if you go outside those use cases at all it's a horrible frustrating experience. Seriously, there are tasks that are easier to do on an Amazon Fire. That should not be the case when an iPad is multitudes more powerful and more expensive. It's a nice product for the handful of approved tasks but even for those its really easy to run into problems especially if ANYTHING requires managing more than 2 files or features from multiple apps. The iPad could be a lot more and a lot more peoples one device.
  - dangus 2y ago
    I own it for my kitchen browsing and YouTube. I paid less than $400 because of those limitations. I just want a recipe and content appliance that is small, cheap, and has good battery life. That’s why I think this is tiring…the people who want it to be more than it is should just take their money elsewhere. Samsung will happily sell you an iPad clone that has more power user capability and is a great product.

supportengineer 2y ago

How would anyone (including Apple) create Apple software without Mac?