Apple’s Tablet Advantage

Apple has a tablet advantage. They have better figured out the tablet experience than the entirety of the Android ecosystem, and have an ecosystem that completely beats Android’s. When tablets first came out, it was exactly a larger mobile phone. There was no differentiation between the two form factors except the screen size.

But over the last two years, Apple has released a few not major but key features that have turned this form factor into something of its own thing. What Apple realized was that the tablet form factor needed additional tools to enable its own use cases. Tablets, with diagonal screen size in the 8 to 12 inch range, start from barely being able to fit inside the size of one of your hands to something that is the size of an letter-sized/A4 sized notebook. They exist in the physical space and weight in between mobile phones and laptops.

If we are to simply examine tablets as mobile phone/laptop substitutes, then only you need to evaluate them along the same dimensions as mobile phones: screen size x resolution, processing power. This is as far I think Android has thought about this problem, and I think on these levels, their offerings are competitive to Apple products.

Nailing down the writing experience

At this size, Apple realized they could also replace physical notebooks, replicate the handwriting/drawing experience notebooks of this size. And this is where things are different. The primary activities to replicate on these tools are writing and drawing. Early attempts using stylus as I’ve tried have been unable to replicate authentically. The solution had to be more complex. So with the Apple Pencil, I think have found it.

Turns out the writing/drawing experience as Apple has designed it needs to be a combination of ‘writing medium, writing device and software’, and I am thinking that it probably does need all three things to work together

• Solve the latency lag by using a optimized writing device (Apple Pencil) and also a screen that can refresh more quickly (ProMotion) and software support
• Solve the various stroke widths with the Apple Pencil’s ability to indicate that you writing with pressure and the writing angle
• Solve the accessibility of the writing device, by allowing it to charge wirelessly and attach magnetically to the side of the writing medium
• And solve price, make it the price of a cellphone, cheaper than a laptop

I am seeing confirmation of this idea through youtube videos, students especially are starting to embrace the paperless note-taking movement. To me, Youtube videos of illustrators saying that this almost replaces their need of Walcom’s 1000USD tablet is a good sign of how good these iPads are at replicating that experience.

I think at this point, only Apple’s hardware has been able to offer a good enough experience. By necessity, the perfection of this experience requires the tight integration of the software, writing medium and writing device. Tight integration especially between soft and hardware is not something that the Android ecosystem is designed to do, and in this case it shows. Samsung/Huawei are probably in the best place to solve it, but I think it is still at least one or two product iterations behind.

Replacing the laptop

The smart connector is also something to point out. Bluetooth keyboards have always been finicky. They need separate charging, need to be paired/connect. But reducing the need for those with an additional connector makes the experience again better. And provides the iPad Pro with a serviceable laptop experience, which increases the value of the iPad, allowing it to seamlessly cross the chasm between tablet and laptop.

iPad mini form factor

As Apple does and honestly most hardware companies, they solve technical problems for their high-end devices before rolling out the updates down the product line. So if the rumors are right, and the iPad Mini is the next device to receive Apple Pencil 2 support, then this I think will enable some new things. The iPad Mini with its form factor of being able to fit in one hand will enable people to use it on the go. I don’t know for what use cases, but I can imagine people who don’t have a stationary work station but want to have this digital experience will find this useful, healthcare workers, retail workers. If it is priced at around $400, I could see a large demographic of users considering this for work

Price

I think Apple pricing is a fascinating thing. They have some of the most well designed hardware, charge an arm for it, and still get hordes of people to line up for them. I’d love to spend a week or so understanding what goes on behind there. Apple is not foreign to the idea of making things cheap, they just refuse to do it within the same generation of product. Digital products drop dramatically in price between generations. Now that, the difference between generations is starting to lessen, there is huge market potential for these digital handwriting devices to slowly proliferate.