If you give me just a few minutes of your time, I'm going to explain to you how Apple
plans to use the newly announced M1 iPads to destroy the entire tablet market and even
disrupt the laptop market.
Let's begin.
A lot of people seem to think that Apple is planning to make the iPad into Apple's version
of Microsoft Surface devices, where you can use the tablet and full desktop version of
the operating system.
While this would be cool, I don't think it's going to happen in my opinion.
Why?
It's simple - Apple does not want two of it's best selling products competing with each
other.
We can even see this referenced by Greg "Joz" Joswiak - who is Apple's senior vice president
of Worldwide Marketing.
He said that Apple has no plans to merge the two operating systems.
This is polite marketing speak for "we like money too much".
Let's examine this further.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would know that Apple's new M1 chip has been
making waves across the entire personal computing sector.
It's a powerful chip, but the iPad has had a fairly powerful chip as well for the last
few years now.
The 2020 iPad Pro featured the A12Z Bionic chip with Neural Engine.
Not quite as powerful as the M1, but pretty close.
Fast forward to 2021, and the iPad now features the M1 chip - putting it's performance on
par with the wildly successful and powerful M1 Macs.
Theoretically, the iPad and M1 Macs should have roughly the same processing power, so
it makes sense to offer a desktop version, or at least a heavily modified desktop version
of the macOS operating system on the iPad.
Right?
Wrong.
Firstly, it would be very difficult to implement.
Desktop operating systems like macOS are very difficult to make touch friendly, especially
on the 11" iPad.
If you've ever used Windows 10 on a Microsoft Surface tablet, you would know how exceedingly
difficult it is to tap on a file for example and rename it without a keyboard and mouse,
and needing a keyboard and mouse to do something basic like this defeats the purpose of a tablet.
Secondly, like I briefly mentioned before, Apple doesn't want products to compete with
each other.
If you could get the functionality of both a tablet and laptop in an iPad, why would
you want to buy a MacBook that only does one of those things?
This is basic business practice, and like every other business, Apple wants to maximize
their profit margins.
They want consumers to buy an iPad AND a MacBook.
So this begs the question, how is Apple going to do that?
What's their secret plan?
It's simple - make the iPad not only a super powerful creative and content consumption
device all on it's own, but also make it an extension of macOS, not a replacement.
We've already seen this start to happen with the implementation of sidecar in 2019.
Your iPad instantly turns into a second monitor for your Mac.
We've also had handoff features for years now, which in a nutshell, allows you to seamlessly
switch between devices whether you're writing an email or browsing the web.
In my opinion, what we'll start to see roll out in the next few months is features like
Sidecar and Handoff on steroids.
For example, potentially being able to stream programs from your desktop Mac to your iPad
and use them with a touch interface, or potentially have inter-app handoff, where third party
apps may be supported.
Imagine being able to instantly handoff an Excel spreadsheet or Premiere Pro timeline
to your iPad whenever you leave your desktop.
Of course, these programs will need to be optimized for this, and that brings up another
point - programs such as DaVinci Resolve may find themselves developing super powerful
iPad specific apps.
You'll get most of the full functionality as you would on a desktop, but with a touch-friendly
skin.
I'd also bet that the Sidecar feature will be completely overhauled and pimped out, allowing
you to use the iPad as a touch interface for almost any supported program.
Think color correction in an editing program and being able to set hotkeys and rotating
dials on your iPad in Sidecar mode.
Basically a fully customizable and touch version of the Elgato Stream deck.
Of course, all of this is likely just scratching the surface, and there's no guarantee what
direction Apple will actually take, but it certainly won't be turning the iPad into a
fully-fledged MacBook replacement.
Think of the iPad and the MacBook like a knife and fork.
You can use one on it's own and it works perfectly fine, but they're designed to be most powerful
when used together.
Anyway, thanks for watching this video and hopefully you enjoyed hearing my opinion.
Any comments or questions please leave them down below but apart from that, I'll catch
you in the next one.