A false dawn

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The truth is that Jobs’ prediction of the iPad replacing the PC was, at best, premature. The 9.7-inch screen of the original iPad was too dinky to work with for a long period of time, and many of the applications that professionals relied on did not exist on iPads, or the versions that did were sub-optimal.

Simple professional requirements such as running two applications on the same screen were beyond the iPad’s capabilities. Touchscreen typing was a poor imitation of a full physical keyboard.

Apple fixed some of these flaws with 2015’s iPad Pro, which incorporated a bigger 12.9-inch screen, an optional physical keyboard and stylus, and a beefed-up processor that made it more capable of processing video and images.

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Hybridization

It was much more like a hybrid between a tablet and a laptop than the original iPad, even if Apple was not the first to try this: Apple’s old rival Microsoft must take credit for pioneering the 2-in-1 design with the Surface device it released in 2012 and which was originally dismissed by Cook.

Since then, Apple has made further improvements, such as allowing the iPad’s web browser to display two pages at once. Last week it released a new version of the iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch screen and slimmer borders to make it more portable.

Later this year, an update to iOS, the software that runs on the iPad and iPhone, will introduce more advanced productivity features. They include a PC-style system for organising computer files that the iPad has long lacked, improved note-taking abilities and a “drag and drop” function that lets users move photos and documents around more quickly.

When Apple unveiled the new version of iOS this month, it felt for the first time that it had focused on improvements to the iPad as much as its smaller, more lucrative, sibling.

There are still, and will continue to be, advantages to using a computer over a tablet. The absence of a mouse can make selecting parts of text or cells in a spreadsheet difficult, despite the alternatives of a touchscreen and stylus. Many programs and file types are still designed for the PC, and that is unlikely to change.

But the iPad offers its own advantages. It is smaller and lighter than even the sleekest laptops, and its less intensive operating system means battery life compares favourably.

Sales of Apple’s tablet are at their lowest since the year it was released. But as it becomes a more viable computer replacement, that may be about to change.

@mindhunter

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