Standing still. iPad Pro 2018
Speaking of independent Apple blogging, it’s nice to see that Thomas Verschoren is back at it.
But, even with all those new bells and whistles, it’s still the same iPad running the same iOS. It’s an iPad. A device that was perfect when it was released. And then kinda rested on its laurels and iterated with safe bets and predictable improvements
I ordered the new iPad Pro (12.9) as soon as the store went live. I was prepared to disagree with Thomas' opinion because my instinct is to defend my purchasing decisions. But he’s not wrong… and neither am I.
As excited as I am to get my new iPad Pro with a USB-C connection, it doesn’t feel like Apple is putting a lot of wood behind this arrow. These are iterative improvements because any major changes require major changes to iOS and the entire interaction model behind app and window management.
For a certain percentage of iPad users the device is feature complete.1 We can’t have very many revolutions for a steady-state product because it alienates users. I think the first big alienation will be FaceID this year.2 Perhaps the next will be a new window manager.
After I get some time with the new iPad Pro and it’s USB-C connector I’ll consider my wish list for the future. The physical design almost never makes it to my top ten list for devices. Except for the Apple Pencil charging interface. The old design was just dumb and a real hindrance to using the hardware with a straight face.
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I don’t count bloggers and podcasters as normal iPad users. There’s a different kind of drive for these folks. Part of that drive is being able to write about their impressive accomplishments with an iPad. That will always take some of the sting out of losing hours trying to figure out how to upload a file to a website. ↩︎
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A second, but much more minor issue will be the changes in gestures. This is related to the lose of the home button but not entirely caused by it. ↩︎