Dear iPad,

I think you are the future. We have seen your ambition to be our primary device and replace laptops. But are you there yet?

The major software update in 2017 (iOS 11) gave you a boost to realizing your potential with multi-tasking and file organization among other features. You have made great progress with performance and responsiveness upgrades along with a maturing apps ecosystem to support you.

However, the progress to get closer to replacing laptops has slowed down in the last 2 years. I don’t think you are there yet to be our primary device. But I decided to give it a try.

For the past month, I used you for all my tasks and adjusted my workflows trying to make it work. My aim was to understand how far in the future before you replace your older brother — MacBook. Here’s my notes.

What you do well

Great for entertainment

You enable us to watch Netflix and YouTube wherever we want.

With the upgraded speakers in the pro, you have gotten raging good reviews for the listening experience.

With the more powerful chips, you have empowered us to play high resolution 3D games as well.

Fun board to draw on

It’s great to draw directly in a digital format with a similar experience as drawing on paper. I now have the ability to change my drawing medium with a tap instead of needing to go to the art store and pick up watercolor or acrylic supplies.

Don’t get me wrong, you will never replace physical art creation and I know that’s not what you are trying to do. But you have accomplished lowering the effort to bring illustrations and art into the digital realm. It’s worthwhile to give yourself a good pat on the back.

Great for consuming content

It is effortless to read, listen, and learn from the world of content using you as a platform. Your multitasking split screen feature makes it easy to take notes and annotate.

The only restriction is that I can’t split just any combination of apps; there is only a set number of permutations that are allowed. For example, I cannot split Gmail and Chrome on one screen. But I can split Chrome and your notes app. I don’t know if that is a restriction imposed by Gmail or enforced by you. At the end of the day, it’s restricting the end user.

Nevertheless, thank you for seamlessly integrating GDrive instead of forcing iCloud. You have come a long way.

What you can improve on

For people to take you seriously in the big leagues, you have some work to do.

Difficult to create business documents and write emails

There is no easily accessible handwriting to text functionality.

Yes, I can buy a keyboard to attach, but doesn’t that get me back to the same interaction as the 2 surfaced laptop?

Yes, I can take notes in apps. That can recognize my handwriting and search by it, but my professional documents need to look clean. This solution is similar to the pre computer days in which there are people that draft notes and then give it to the secretary to create a typed version on a typewriter.

I’m sure you have your reasons for note emulating what OneNote has enabled on PC touch pads. Nevertheless, consumer needs are still there and this is a biggy to solve in order to be the primary device.

Please help me make the documents (decks, emails, etc.) I create look as good and clean as the ones I create on my laptop.

The workflow for web designer is not optimal

This is a very solvable problem. Although not a perfect solution, I’ve found ways to work around it. I think this will become easier as you drive adoption.

For example, right now I use Sketch for design and they do not have a version that works on iPad. But as you get more demand, Sketch or others might start developing iPad products to support web designer workflows that go beyond hand drawings.

I’m hopeful that in the near future there will be an easy way on iPad to create wireframes and high fidelity prototypes that adhere to a predefined design system.

Things that are a stretch

There are still some professions and tasks that will most likely remain on desktop or laptop for the foreseeable future. But who knows, you might surprise me.

Performing analysis and modeling tasks

You seem to be the best for right-brained creative activities. However, the left-brained analytical tasks seems difficult to complete using you. I see using Excel & running SQL queries to still be the most efficient when done on 2 surfaced devices (laptop, desktop).

Doing programing and application development

Due to the complexity of the functions needed to complete development tasks (computational intensity, customizability, console accessibility, etc.), I see if very difficult to completely do on iPad anytime soon. Nevertheless, this could become a possibility with advancements in cloud computing and rollout of 5G technology.

Bridging development and UI design

Although you may never fully replace programming tasks done on laptop/desktop, maybe you can be the bridge for tasks that cross the left & right brain.

You could enable efficient translation of UI design (creative right-brain task) into front-end development code (logical left-brain task) that is then hooked up with back-end API’s in order to fill in the information.

If we use the model-view-controller architectural framework used in many modern applications:

• the view portion can be done with you
• the model & controller portions can be created on laptop/desktop

People at companies such as Webflow and SuperNova are already making great progress. You could be the next step to make getting from idea to production code super efficient.

Conclusion

iPad, I look forward to seeing you grow up soon.

Sincerely,

Joy