Apple just launched a new iPad Pro. The new keyboard is slick with a new trackpad. And having an extra USB-C cable port for charging and the peripheral device should be very useful. And although the AR/VR boom is yet to take off in the consumer market, the new LiDAR sensor should open opportunities for new type contents to flourish.
Hardware-wise, iPad has surpassed most laptops other there, but can it a laptop replacement?
Imagine a world without a laptop. Steve Jobs came back to life and declared dictatorship over the computing world so that every laptop has to be replaced with an iPad. People complain about the screen size and ergonomics, as well as crappy file system support that leads to tears because some files that might never get opened again unless Apple decides to support it (or fix it).
Before you start developing a turtleneck syndrome and resurrected Steve gets his new turtleneck shirt, the world will come to a grinding halt, because no mobile apps can be developed on the iPad.
Yes, there are IDEs for iPad, as well as an abundance of web-based IDEs. People actually have been developing software exclusively on iPad before 2013 connecting to servers. But when it comes to developing a mobile app, you need to connect to another device and run it in a debugging mode to trace problems. Yes, I mean XCode on an iPad.
Unfortunately, the proof-of-concept for XCode is well, still POC:
Your iPad is loyal, dependable, and perhaps inseparable for you. You are perfectly happy with it and that’s great! But to me, the iPad is like a neutered personal device without the ability to produce apps for its own use.
I want it to have its apps so it may multiply and prosper. When it says “productive”, I want it to mean fecund, fertile, and… FRUITFUL!
Apples anyone?
iPad Pro’s title on its latest ad was “Your next computer is not a computer” and they are right. So you are not getting a computer, but a non-computer.
In my next post, I will talk about my laptop setup that stands on the opposite side of the iPad.
