Why An iPad Pro Revolution Would Be Bad News For iOS
The iPad Pro is an amazing device. Its gorgeous, nearly bezel-less, display makes other tablets — even the rest of the iPad lineup — look way out of date, and at only a quarter of an inch thick and weighing just over a pound, the tablet is likely to mark a watershed moment in consumer electronics. As many tech journalists said at the time of the latest iPad Pro’s release, Apple seems to be trying to usher in a new era in which most users have little need for a laptop or desktop computer because a tablet will suffice, or further, might even be a better tool for the job. However, despite whispers of this being the beginning of the end for the MacBook for everyone from casual web surfers to professional power users, as a web developer it’s difficult for me to see a future in which I use a device running iOS for my work.
Don’t get me wrong, I take no satisfaction in making that statement; back in 2016 I made the jump from Android to iOS and haven’t looked back. And as a fan of the platform it’s all too easy for me to get caught up in the buzz of countless professionals leaving their MacBooks to gather dust upon realising their workflows can be easily replicated on the iPad Pro, and further, with the added portability and various benefits that iOS brings. The problem is that the design philosophies that make iOS such a great platform are the very same restrictions that prevent it from being a viable system for a software developer to use. While Apple could make updates to work around this — albeit drastic ones — the implications of them doing so make me hope it never happens.
Android evangelists often like to point out that iOS is a “closed” operating system, and while it is true that it provides the user with fewer ways to customise the UI than Android does, this is a byproduct of one of iOS’s most attractive features. On iOS, every app runs in its own self-contained “sandbox”: a miniature file system where no matter how much chaos a piece of malware might cause, the damage cannot extend to data belonging to other apps. This means if I were to install a malicious app — which would be difficult anyway thanks to the App Store’s fairly rigorous approval system — it would only have access to the data in its own sandbox, and my passwords and bank details would be safe. The same technique is used for Mac OS, however only software distributed via the App Store must comply with the sandboxing architecture, and on the Mac platform users are free to download and install software from whichever dark, virus infested corner of the internet they choose; while Mac OS is far less likely to be infected than Windows, it isn’t as reliably secure as iOS.
Of course, iOS isn’t bulletproof; it has its cracks just like every OS, but while it is possible for a virus to exist on iOS, encountering one is practically unheard-of. While the customisation Android offers is nice, its novelty wears off, and for many of us it takes a back seat to the importance of security, especially as more and more aspects of our lives are punctuated and even recorded in one way or another by our use of smart devices.
This enforced sandboxing, along with a love for iOS’s meticulously designed UI, is the primary reason I choose to use an iPhone. However, it’s also the reason I hope the iPad Pro will never be sufficient for software development.
Whether I’m building a website, working on an iOS app or just performing admin tasks on my machine, I spend a lot of time looking at my Mac’s terminal. A command line interface allows the user unfettered access to the operating system’s shell without the distraction or restrictions of a GUI designed to railroad its users towards a certain set of functionality. Ultimately, it gives you more of what developers want as much of as possible: control. And iOS is not designed with control in mind, rather it’s intended for the majority of users, who want an elegant, streamlined user experience.
“Why can’t it just run Mac OS?”
While it would be possible for Apple to allow access to a command line interface in iOS, for the security benefits of the OS to remain intact, the said interface would need to be opened within the context of a particular app’s sandbox, and would not be able to reach outside of that miniature file system. This would mean, for instance, incorporating a file from the camera roll in your project couldn’t be achieved by simply finding the file in question and running a cp command, as would be done on a Mac. Instead, Apple would need to expose an API to allow the transferring of files for that purpose, which would probably feel like a frequent roadblock in the programmer’s workflow - roadblocks being the antithesis of iOS’s ethos. Necessary significant changes such as this lead me to speculate that if Apple were to expand the target demographic of the iPad Pro to include software developers - and assuming the device continues to run iOS - they would more likely just enforce app sandboxing less strictly, similarly to how it works on Mac OS as previously mentioned. This would leave ordinary users like those who currently use iPhone and iPad (still the majority in this scenario), and their sensitive data, less secure than before.
Luckily, I don’t view Apple doing away with the MacBook product line and expecting iOS developers to transition to using an iPad Pro any time soon as much of a likelihood. However, there is a growing number of disgruntled fans of the new device who feel it is held back by some of the limitations of iOS as a system designed for mobile first and foremost. Such voices are asking “Why can’t it just run Mac OS?”. Others have suggested that iOS be forked into two new operating systems, one for iPhone and one for iPad, the latter potentially sacrificing security and a refined user experience for better control and versatility. For this reason, I do fear that while perhaps not imminent, there is potentially a future in which proclaiming iOS’s superior security benefits over Android might not be as accurate a statement as it is today.
Ultimately, the direction Apple is planning to take the iPad Pro isn’t yet clear. iOS 13 is likely to bring changes intended to allow the device to better utilise its hardware — for instance taking proper advantage of the available screen real estate rather than just using a mobile UI with extra padding — and we can probably all agree that such updates would be harmless improvements. However, as much as I’m tempted to splash out on an iPad Pro for myself, I hope my MacBook isn’t made obsolete any time soon.
