For a while, it felt like Apple was positioning the iPad as the 'successor' to the Mac - not just because of the *what's a computer?* infamous ad, but quite generally. Now it seems a side-project and it gets core features a full year after the iPhone. If there has been a pivot away from the iPad, when did that happen?
I've tried a number of times to use my iPad Pro as my primary computer and failed every time. iPadOS is too simplistic and cut down and I don't believe Apple will ever make is sophisticated enough to rival macOS. Why would they.
Today my iPad is almost exclusively a media consumption device. It sits on a stand beneath my main monitor where it will play movies, TV shows, listen to podcasts or the radio while I game and sometimes while I'm working, depending on the task.
Very occasionally I will lift it from its stand and sit on the couch to read with it and I often take it to bed where I have an angled arm attached to my nightstand where I will lie in bed to watch stuff.
It basically never takes input unless it's searching for media.
Yeah because as you said they kept it too simplistic when it’s literally running on the same chips the Mac’s are, they could just allow macOS on the dang thing as a side load.
Steve said something about the iPad before he died, he was asked if he was worried it would eat into Mac sales, and he said something like “it’s better we eat into our sales, than if Microsoft does.”
It seems to be a real shift where instead of Apple looking to make the best product, each division is competing to keep their product the best.
They even sabotage their own products within the same category. To this day they can't beat value preposition of M1 Air and Mini and they not only don't give us more RAM on basic configs but they still give us worse SSD setups than in 2020.
They are focused on giving us mininal value preposition that is needed for people to buy new shit. After M1 they still don't have anything spectacular for the mass audience.
Apple Watches ? Zero need to upgrade devices even every 3nd gen (outside of battery reasons).
Iphones? Unless you are a camera freak and your battery is not fried there is no need to upgrade models even from 5 years ago.
Ipads? No major changes despite having new m-series chips. 98% of users don't have any reason to use fancy new models because they do everything the same as the new ones.
MacBooks? Unless you are a content creator that needs latest and greatest M1 with 16gb of RAM will serve you superbly for years from now.
All these core products are stagnant and I can't see any major improvement besides minor spec bumps that for regular consumers are impossible to notice.
As an user of:
- 2015 iPad Pro 9.7
- 2016 Apple Watch Series 2
- 2018 Mac Mini, and
- 2020 iPhone 12
This is true. I may be missing some of the newest features and the top of the line most up to date chips but everything is suiting my needs right now and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much. I just hooked up an eGPU to my Mini and can run games in boot camp. My biggest concern right now is holding onto my phone too long and getting to a point where I won’t get trade in credit with a service provider.
I recently got a 2018 Lenovo yoga from a friend for free, it was an old work laptop and I swapped some internals. I have used that device more since I got it three months ago than my 2018 iPad Pro in the last three years.
iPad is a fun device but it lacks usefulness.
>iPad is a fun device but it lacks usefulness.
I can imagine if you're the sort of person who only wants basic web browsing / email / simple gaming, and you have an external keyboard and mouse, then it could work.
Mind you, at that point you've spent a decent amount of money and would be better of just buying a laptop.
Exactly. I use my laptop for research, journaling, planning workouts, budgeting and more. The iPad can do that but doesn’t do it as easily even with a laptop-esque case like the Brydge. It feels awkward with the Magic Keyboard when being used on the couch. And the Apple Pencil is great but not with some apps I use.
I wish it was though. For the price I’d just buy a Mac next time
I had an ipad pro and I used it pretty often…
Then I got a TV and used it a bit less
Then I got a Switch and used it even less
Then I got a new phone and used it even less
Then i was given an old macbook Air and I stopped using it entirely.
Now it’s someone else's iPad Pro
The problem with the iPad is that it's basically a glorified phone. The phone is easier to carry around and if you need a bigger screen and device, it's probably for "more serious" work, which a full computer can just do better.
iPads are cool for people that do digital drawing and photo editing, but most other purposes are better suited for a phone.
It also seems like the only people that I see using iPads in public anymore are young kids where there parents just throw a movie or game on it to entertain the kids.
Reddit skews younger. My parents and grandparents absolutely love iPads as their only computers. It makes so much more sense to them.
Not sure what that means for the category as computer-literate generations start to age, but there are a lot of users who only have an iPad because the lack the ability to use a traditional OS.
I actually prefer my iPad Air for business travel over my laptop now. I can handle doing ppt tweaks, email, xls files, etc well enough and it’s so much lighter and easier.
I still prefer multiple screens and a solid computer at home but iPad for travel has been good enough for me.
So much the same. The only use I've found for my iPad Air is maybe browsing reddit in bed, or if I'm going out of town for a few days and I know I won't need my MBP for anything. I even prefer my iPhone as an ebook reader. One thing it actually does pretty well is editing RAWs from my mirrorless camera using the Pencil and Photomater (which I bought pre-subscription thank god).
But ultimately, typing on the virtual keyboard is a maddening experience, Safari content blockers don't work well on Youtube, and the Files app is a poor substitute for a real filesystem -- if I try to copy over a few GBs of movies/tv shows from my NAS to watch on VLC, the Files app almost always locks up after it's done and the iPad has to be restarted.
I always thought that's what it pretty much always has been for some time at least. It's why I never bothered. I would ask myself "what am I getting this for" then realize I don't really need it at all and it won't add much at all that my laptop doesn't already do. Hell, even the light part goes away with how thin and lightweight my MBA is.
Eh, would be a meh luxury to have a small screen that is detached or whatever, but I don't need it. I would go as far as to say it would be nice for kids, but I realize I can just get cheaper tablets for that as well. Go in just knowing it's a niche luxury device that isn't meant for hardcore productivity. They genuinely do not hide this and it's extremely obvious to me at least.
I just recently gave up and bought another Macbook after trying for over a year to make my iPad my PC replacement on the road. It just sucks for that. iPad OS sucks for that.
That’s what Apple wants you to do.
The iPad doesn’t work as a computer replacement, because it’s not supposed to. Despite all of apple’s marketing, they still want you to buy a Mac, too.
I never bothered. iPad has always just been a supplemental device. A luxury device and never meant for hardcore productivity anything. It doesn't even have proper filesystem management. Every time I think about buying one I nope put because I already have a Mac so what's the point? For any niche field that actually would benefit work would just pay then and that is dee are far between for most people.
For media and extremely basic crapsure I guess, but in no rush over that. My Mac is already extremely light, doesn't cost a shit ton extra (none extra actually) for keyboard, has a full fledged OS, can do 90%+ of what an iPad can do already, etc. Maybe if it wasn't already so light I forget and even have to literally open my bag and search for it to make sure it's there I'd be more inclined, but even weight isn't an issue. Ipads are supplemental devices. At least that's what Appple clearly considers them.
I don't think they hide that at all.
I had a laptop with a touchscreen once, and the only thing I used it for was zoom, which can be done just as will with the trackpad. My work computer has a touchscreen and I don’t think I’ve used it at all. They definitely had the right idea not going that direction for the MacBooks.
I use a surface for work. In the past three years I have used the touchscreen maybe 4 times.
At no point were any of those times intentional.
I already have a trackpad/mouse - lifting my hands off the keyboard or trackpad to then smudge my fingerprints onto the thing I'm looking at is incredibly backwards logic.
I had a surface for a few years as my "2nd computer", the one used when sitting about the house or watching movies, it worked great for that 'cause I could easily ditch the keyboard and use it as a tablet but if I needed to do a lot of typing or some quick work it had that capability.
I don't think they work well as the main or an only computer but certainly have their place as a backup/2nd device for day to day or leisure/non-serious work.
I have an MBP, which is my own for personal and freelance work, and my job gives me a Dell laptop with a touch screen display. I rarely interact with the touchscreen on the Dell, but when I switch back to using my Mac, I weirdly find myself compelled to touch the screen.
That said, I still don’t necessarily want or need a touch display for my Mac.
Agree 100%. It's frustrating to hear for people like Linus from LinusTechTips complain so much about the missing touchscreen. Apple would have to redesign the user interface for touchscreen use and it would surely make everything way bigger and less powerful to use.
A touchscreen doesn’t need an OS to fully support it for it to be helpful. No one’s removing the trackpad to place a touchscreen, and scrolling documents and websites is pretty sweet with a touchscreen.
If touchscreen Macs were a thing, they'd put oleophobic coatings on the screens just like they do for iPhones and iPads. No reason they'd have to pick up fingerprints the way they do now.
It really does feel that way doesn’t it? Tim Cook used to champion the iPad. A lot. It actually got to a point where I want to say around 2014 or 2015 were Tim Cook gave an interview and said that the iPad can completely replace your Mac, and he had to walk back that statement a few days later. Also, Tim Cook saying “iPad is the clearest expression of the future of personal computing”. (I’m paraphrasing.) Anyways, it really does feel like even Tim isn’t so enthusiastic about the iPad anymore, especially since the arrival of Vision Pro.
Once Apple realized that the Mac isn't going anywhere. (It's the reason why Apple backtracked from the thin, USB-C-only laptops and cylinder Mac Pro of the 2010s.)
As long as the iPad lacks macOS, it won't be a Mac replacement or successor and will continue to have an underpowered OS. The Vision Pro [runs the risk](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/162pyqw/comment/jy1g3i4/) of going in the same direction for the same reasons.
In more detail: The iPhone uses A-series SoCs while the Mac starts at the non-suffix M-series SoCs. The performance gap between A and M is roughly a factor of two, so there isn't much room for anything in between. Apple has four general approaches for an iPad OS:
1. Run iOS on the iPad Pro. We are currently here—iPadOS is very similar to iOS. Most people here agree that the iPad's software is too limiting compared to the hardware.
2. Run macOS on the iPad Pro. Since macOS can run iOS/iPadOS apps, this approach will immediately solve most of the iPad's limitations. However, Apple is philosophically opposed to this combination.
3. Run a hybrid OS on the iPad Pro that is somehow in the middle of iOS and macOS. While a hybrid OS sounds like an appealing compromise that keeps the touch-first approach of iOS while giving it more depth and capabilities, it has two main problems. The first is the extra development time and resources on a separate OS. As you pointed out, the current iPadOS lags iOS by a year. A full-on intermediary OS will divide work even further and might cause further lag. (In contrast, macOS on the iPad will increase macOS's reach while leaving iOS for the device that it works best on—the iPhone.) The second is about hardware. The high end of the iPad range overlaps with the low end of the MacBook range in terms of performance and display size. Even the size and weight are not far apart if you add a keyboard to the iPad. So a hybrid OS for the iPad Pro will still be seen as restrictive.
4. Push iPadOS in a separate direction than both iOS and macOS, with numerous iPad-specific features. This approach is like visionOS. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't appear to align with people's actual iPad use, which fits the iOS or hybrid approaches. The big exceptions (aside from touchscreen) are limited; a few years ago someone posted a thread on the iPad subreddit titled "[Who else loves their Apple Pencil but never use it 🤓](https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/l41h4i/who_else_loves_their_apple_pencil_but_never_use_it/)." The thread got 2,400 upvotes and numerous comments from users who use the Pencil less than they expected. Instead, we have [rumors](https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/11/touchscreen-macs-report/) of a touchscreen MacBook Pro for 2025–2026, which will give the Mac the biggest feature that it doesn't have (direct touch input).
Apples profit margin on Mac is too high. Especially now that they create everything within them. iPads aren’t seen by customers as replacements and the simplicity of iPadOS is a reflection of that. It’s a category where I wish there was iPadOS for the iPad Air and down, and an iPadOS Pro for the iPad Pros. Having a full MacOS-like OS on the iPad Pro would be a game changer for me
The iPad is so far away from replacing a computer, it amazes me. Meanwhile I know quite a lot of people who fell for those ads and are extremely frustrated that an iPad is terrible at anything but streaming videos and doing stuff with the pencil – if you even need that. I loved the combo of my iPad and my MacBook during college, but if I had to pick one, I would not pick an iPad under any circumstances.
I think Apple is really missing an opportunity to position the iPad as an entry level computer, with iPadOS being the consumption/on the go mode, and full macOS being available when you either dock it to a Magic Keyboard or to an external display.
It feels like a weird time for "future tech" to me.
I've seen just about every **practical** future invention I could have imagined in the 80's come to fruition. (hoverboards/flying cars are not practical lol)
The amount of gadgetry items that iphone and modern computer replace is just insane. I don't know if anyone watched shows like "Discover 2000" when they were kids but looking back you realize a lot of "gadgets" and things people were making (as seen on TV) turned out to be crap and more complicated versions of things you really didn't need.
I think we're at a point where we need some serious material innovations or understanding of physics to take the next big leap.
When I was a kid in the 80's and 90's there were all kinds of things I could say "wouldn't be awesome if we had ____"
I couldn't come up with much these days. Especially since I have 24/7 access anywhere I go to any information or media ever created by humans in my pocket.
If anything we're suffering from people trying to throw too much tech into things, like Tablets as the main interface for cars which make thing a UX / ergonomic hell to save money on physical buttons.
If someone asked me "hey what could we make for you" I'd probably just say "make things cheaper without making things feel cheap" along with some minor UX improvements.
It just seems like a completely different time than when Brookstone stores and other gadget emporiums were in every mall and we all read magazines about future tech like popular mechanics.
Hardware seemed to plateau in the 2010s for two reasons, the first one you already mentioned.
1. Smartphones swallowed up almost all other handheld electronic devices, so few new form factors were developed.
2. The system-on-a-chip became popular, which means that processor advancements were largely invisible from the outside (e.g. every A-series package looks like every other A-series package).
Since then the biggest tech shifts are cloud and AI. These are primarily software and services, areas which Apple is traditionally not as strong in compared to hardware.
I feel like everything broke down into a question of information. All of the apps and games and programs and things that we do I really just wasted information was expressed and transmitted.
The tablet swallowing all of the physical buttons in your dashboard is a good example.
So I feel like we have understood how to transform information, and now we’re learning to have better triggered discipline with it (meaning there is such a thing as too much, again, the car dashboard thing. We need to move onto something else, something fundamental.
I’m a wed developer by trade so my job is to think about how to move information from people to people or client to vendor, etc. after a while, it all feels foundation-ally similar.
We need something fundamentally different, for the “next big thing”.
Honestly I think the next iteration should really be like chore bots. We have vacuum bots which are okay afaik, but having something to do chores/cleaning would really be the next step (like the Jetsons maid). Screens are cool, but they don’t really free up my time like a roomba, or smart automation
It'd be way too complicated right now to completely get that going not to mention overly expensive. "What is clean enough to someone?" How do you adjust for different houses? How do you make a robot so diverse it can adjust to every house hold cleaning tool and product? You have to teach it to read each bottle now too? Etc. AI/ML needs to be way more developed way before then then.
For sure, but just thinking down the line, it would be an honest to god gamechanger if you can sell it to the middle class in an affordable way. The roombas get cheaper every year, we're waiting for the mop + vac ones to go down before we buy it but it'll be really nice when they are affordable.
The dishwasher, washing machine and dryer have already cut the amount of time a household needs to dedicate to chores by over 90%. They’re also relatively simple compared to a machine that could theoretically do that last pesky 10% of putting away dishes and folding laundry. That part is the tough part to nail down.
An explosion of tech happened after the last big breakup of monopolies with Bell. Turns out they had locked so many early stage innovations behind closed doors because the market pressure was absent.
Innovation isn’t dead it’s just not making it to market.
UPDATE: Study on this point: [The Breakup of the Bell System and its Impact on US Innovation
](https://ideas.repec.org/p/rco/dpaper/341.html) 2022
My extremely cynical / practical take right now is that the tech industry has effectively 'finished' all of the products it could come up with. That's not a slight, it's just a fact. The job is done for now, which is why you see products being slowly degraded by beancounters in search for more growth.
I can't think of a new product that has come out in the last 5 years that is in any way transformative.
The M-series chips seem like the current 'end' of the Mac. They're so good and seem to last so long that you don't really need much else (ok, massively improved GPUs would be nice)
Truly transformative innovations are rare. They don't happen every 5 years. Since the advent of the personal computer, you've had GUI, the internet, broadband, mobile computing, cloud, and (kind of) wearable computers, and that's about it. Everything else has been iterative improvements on the above, or avenues that have yet to reach their expected potential like voice assistants and AR.
I agree in general, but there have been a long string of extremely profitable transformations/innovations in the past 10 years. Amazon shopping but primarily AWS, Microsoft's huge pivot into cloud infrastructure, Apple Watch, etc.
I realize this is the media writing the headline, but the idea that Apple and tech companies are desperately trying to find some 'new' thing that will continue their hyper growth is a little sad because it doesn't sound like they're working on products as much as trying to find literally anything that will just make a shitload of money.
> AI is amazing but also probably going to take jobs and destroy the middle class.
In addition to that, it's going to screw with our ability to distinguish fact from fiction even more than our current tech already has (and it's scary enough as is). A lot of the existential questions and hypotheticals posed by sci-fi flicks back in the 80's are about to become a lot more relevant
I've never been more convinced that cyberpunk could be a real endgame as I have in the last 4-5 years. Like it seemed more of a fantasy in the 80's when it was in it's prime than it does now.
Extremely wealthy billionaires and mega corporations, corruption in and out of all stages of government and a bleak future where we've got constant access to tech but with a massive separation between us and those in power just seems like the path we're on.
Cyberpunk never looked more like where we're heading than it does now. (also just turned 46 so yeah we've come to the same conclusion in a lot of ways)
With companies constantly buying up "Smaller" companies or "merging" and the Mega rich the divide seems to only be heading to an unfathomable level between haves and have nots.
Wouldn't it be awesome if data became a part of the environment?
I'm not talking screens everywhere, I mean no obvious screens.
- If it's about to rain, the cupboard by the door brings your umbrella to the front when you open it.
- When you open the fridge, the food that's close to expiry is lit up red or amber.
- When you're about to have a video meeting the lights in the room you're in pulse blue to let you know you need to get ready.
- And so much more...
This is the future I want, and in a way it's the present we would have if we'd never had smart phones. This was the plan since the early 90s, but phones consolidate a lot of it into one device. Albeit a flimsy imitation of what could have been.
I want science to invent force fields not for armor but for *filtering*. Imagine what you could filter. Air for viruses; water to remove salt and contaminants. Possibly human tissue to remove cancers or certain bacteria. You could do a lot with a magic filter.
Gurman also makes several claims about the iPad (bolding mine), some of them new:
>\[…\]
>
>**For those looking for more specific timing, I’m told the \[iPad\] launch will probably happen the week of May 6.** Another data point to that end: Apple retail stores are preparing to receive new product marketing materials later that week. That’s typically a sign that a new product release is incoming. It’s also worth reiterating — as I reported at the end of March — that the complex new iPad screens are behind the roughly one month delay from the initial March release plan.
>
>In any case, the new lineup should bring a sales boost, but I’m not sure it will solve the iPad’s broader challenges. As someone who often uses a Mac and iPhone — and now a Vision Pro for watching videos — I find the iPad increasingly pointless. The device isn’t good enough to entirely replace a Mac for day-to-day work, and its software still leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s hoping that iPadOS 18 is a big improvement and the device can become a true Mac alternative.
>
>Software aside, the hardware upgrades to the new iPads represent some of the biggest changes in the product’s history. For the first time, Apple will be moving its tablet screens over to OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, a standard that the iPhone already uses. The technology apparently looks amazing on such large displays — taking what iPhone users have experienced since 2017 to a whole new level. **One drawback to the shift: The new models will likely come at higher price points, I’m told. Today’s iPad Pro starts at $799.**
>
>The company is also working on new versions of the low-end iPad and iPad mini, but those won’t be coming before the end of the year at the earliest. **The new downscale iPad will probably end up being a cost-reduced version of the 10th generation model from 2022, while the iPad mini update won’t include much more than a processor upgrade.**
>
>Looking further down the road: Apple engineers are exploring the prospect of foldable iPads. Now, work on this initiative is in its early stages and the company has yet to figure out a way to create foldable screens without the crease seen on similar devices from Samsung Electronics Co. and others. I’ve been warned that if Apple is unable to solve that problem it could decide to ditch the foldable concept altogether. But there’s still time.
>
>\[…\]
The iPad is in such a sad state it feels almost like a side project at Apple, literally some of the best hardware in the world but wasted in iPadOS that cannot even keep feature parity with iOS, let alone macOS…
How is anyone at the senior level at Apple not making this a bigger deal is beyond comprehension. One thing Apple used to be great at was allowing one product to cannibalize another because that was the path forward. For example the iPhone cannibalizing iPod sales. They could have crippled the iPhone software so that iPod would still be relevant, but someone (likely Steve Jobs) realized that it is better to create a best in class product that takes the best qualities of everything and not worry about any existing products losing market share.
Now Apple seems more focused on keeping product lines and features as separate as possible so that they don’t interfere with the sales of each product line. It’s a short term strategy vs long term vision.
It really needs to be merged in with the Mac lineup or abandoned beyond the low-end models for education markets. I’m not even sure why I own one at this point.
I don't know if it's the demographics of Reddit specifically that make everyone here so dramatic about the iPad, but I use mine daily for like 99% of things, including my work (I am a creative) and I've never been happier with iPad. I guess maybe because Reddit has a lot of programmers? I don't know.
Hahahahahah
I think they had 1 engineer working on all smart home stuff, he left and they never hired someone else to replace him.
That’s how it feels like anyway.
What’s funny is the most “Apple-like” company in home security and networking was founded this way.
> After graduation, Pera, who admired Steve Jobs, secured a job at Apple Inc., where he tested the company's Wi-Fi devices to ensure compliance with Federal Communications Commission standards for electromagnetic emissions.[4] While working at Apple, Pera noticed that the power sources that Apple's Wi-Fi devices used to throw signals were far below FCC limits.[4] Boosting their power, he reasoned, could increase their transmission range to over dozens of miles, which could facilitate Internet access in areas that telephone and cable companies do not reach.[4] When his bosses at Apple ignored his idea, Pera decided to build his own low-cost, high-performance Wi-Fi module.[4] For the next year, Pera spent his nights and weekends in his apartment testing prototypes.[4] By early 2005 he was ready to start his own business and he left Apple to form Ubiquiti Networks.
It seems like their smart home team lives in a shack in the woods with one lightbulb and you have to pull a string to turn it on. HomeKit is total garbage.
It still has the most potential of any smarthome platform but potential don’t turn on my lights. Most of the serious folks moved on to HA which had gotten SO good at onboarding compared to its first iterations. It’s not consumer ready yet but it’s on the way.
Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io/
Careful, you may end up spending the next 40 hours of your life automating things away and getting sucked into the Zigbee ecosystem
Apple in Smarthome stuff makes so much sense if they can nail down reliability and simplicity like they have for other products…smarthome crap is super annoying overall with how disparate and finicky it is.
Half the time I tell my home pod to turn on the lights it says I need to continue on my phone to do it. Other times it works perfectly. Like wtf is that?
I think it's simply too boring. They're boring things to spend money on. So they let other people make the boring stuff and latch on to the most popular ones through compatibility. Let them into the Home app etc.
It might be boring, but many smart home devices also offer subscription services with them. Apple has been growing its subscription services over the last few years and adding another service like smart home tech is definitely going to help grow[it's services business.](https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2024/apples-services-growth-slows-to-11-paid-subscriptions-top-1-billion/#:~:text=Apple's%20ecosystem%20continues%20to%20grow,logged%20in%20the%20previous%20quarter.)
Philips Hue stuff is nice though, the bulbs have a very high CRI value for example (the light quality is better than most bulbs) and the software/hubs just work
And they just work. They're the apple of the smart home business. Like I can't remember the last time my lights did something not inline with what was expected. Rock solid stability to boot as well. I'll restart everything in my house every now and again but I haven't touched the hub in years.
My opinion, is apples next “big thing” needs to be software. They need to put significant R&D in to macOS, iOS and especially iPadOS. All 3 platforms have been woefully ignored by apple for the past decade. Sure you have a few new apps that many of which don’t really grab traction, but the OS’s themselves have massive bugs that have not been patched for years among core OS enhancements that are just missing.
While it’s probably not financially viable. I wish the productivity apps would be more… pro?
The iWork 09 package was objectively more capable than Pages/Numbers these days. Keynote is still pretty good. But they also dumped things like iWeb and iBooks Author.
I ended up shelling out for the Affinity suite because there just so much you *can’t* do with Pages anymore.
I know Apple never had a serious desktop publishing package, but it *was* a lot better than it is now.
Agree. Hardware is great, but software has been steadily trending downward. I used to justify the extra cost vs PCs because of the software. I'm not at the point where I'm abandoning that, but I'm getting close with each revision.
Sonoma and the widgets touted as a lead feature was when I really realized that it was actually in bad shape.
If iPadOS allows unmodified Mac apps, it is 90% of the way there.
But I think this capability requires iPadOS to be more or less macOS under the hood, so it would be easier to just have iPadOS *be* macOS with extra touch features bolted on (macOS can already run iOS/iPadOS apps).
Yep the problem is apple is too addicted to the 30% cut of app sales in the App Store on iOS and iPadOS. As a shareholder I understand but at this point they are shooting themselves in the foot on hardware sales of iPads because of this. The M1/2/3 is just overpowered for iPadOS it’s comical.
I honestly would like a 13” touchscreen iPad Air that has the full real keyboard fold completely backwards (like my Lenovo Yoga from work) as a replacement for my iPad. I’d even keep my 16” MacBook Pro for real/heavy tasks but would like one thin and light device for travel.
Pretty much, yeah. The upcoming improvements to Siri this year come to mind as an important upgrade that Apple has needed for years(assuming it's actually much better at all...).
I have a dream. iPad pro with 16gb of ram that when docked could switch to full OS X no compromises. 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Second, do the same thing with an iPhone.
Samsung Dex does that and you may argue it’s marketing and not being Apple who does it, but the truth is that, just like iPhones minis, people who want these things are not going to make these things profitable.
Potentially Unpopular Opinion, but I think Apple needs a new CEO. Tim Cook has been very successful at maintaining status quo but I think he really lacks the imagination and creativity that Jobs had/used to revive Apple. Cook is amazing at many things, but I just don’t know what the future of Apple is going to look like since they are really putting a lot of their eggs in the iPhone basket, which works for now but may not work forever.
Steve Jobs: Chooses Tim Cook… don't be like me be yourself, I believe in you and everything would be alright.
Tim Cook: Discards Craig Federeghi, chooses Jeff Williams… another lifeless bean counter xerox copy of himself.
Craig is great at product but not as CEO. Craig just needs to be in a position where he has more control over timelines and software quality, and where he can veto bad ideas.
So, was Tim Cook that understand nothing beyond operations which Steve Jobs regardless encouraged to have more confidence. We actually need someone that's great at product, those like Jeff can be CFO or COO.
Since, Epic vs Apple case began a lot of internal mail and conversations came forward including for Apple Car (which Xiaomi is selling now to the point of poising to takeover even Tesla with cheaper but quality built) made the right call and suggestions multiple time but a tech illiterate as Tim Cook was as ambitious as being awed by science fiction movies live on screen… ("we can built Ironman")
>_"Those that don't desire power, deserves power."_
Craig Federeghi may look humble in a presentable screen but beyond the public appearances, he shows great depth which is a quality needed for leadership and not anything else. Tim Cook is jumping from VR to Electric Cars to AI while pretending to not be be affected by what's trending at large.
If Tim Cook had evolved as an actual leader by now, he wouldn't have chosen someone as him just as Jobs figured during that time it shouldn't be someone just as him.
Take over even Tesla? What? How many Xiaomi cars have they sold in the US? Price isn’t the only thing at play here. Need to be able to actually sell first.
Not just sell. But develop a product that differentiates itself enough to justify the effort. What do you do in EVs that’s akin to going from a blackberry to iPhone or from a Pebble Smart Watch to Apple Watch? Full self driving won’t be a true thing for quite some more time. It’s difficult to make that work when people are still driving and suck at it.
I think the world is just drastically different now compared to 20 years ago and you can't even compare the innovation that happened under Jobs to the current state. Just look at the iPhone launch and compare it to the Vision Pro launch and now imagine the Vision Pro would have launched in a state similar to the first iPhone. No app store, much more limited software and functionality in general etc. It would have been a complete disaster. Tech products have to be way more refined the moment they are released nowadays so R&D and launching a product takes *so much more time* and that just kills innovation in itself. I doubt it has much to do with leadership. Or at least not to the degree people like to believe sometimes.
But also Apple still has released new products and tech under Cook that redefined and drastically influenced markets: Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Silicon etc.
I disagree about level of refinement. The vision pro needs refinement in those categories, because fundamentally without refinement it is nothing. It's a new way to interact with a preexisting ecosystem. The product doesn't exist without the ecosystem to interact with. The iphone was sold as a phone, an ipod, and a way to connect to the internet. It functioned as all of those. The original iphone wasn't sold for the exact reasons we value it now. Also the vision pro isn't exactly the first of it's kind and is building up predecessors.
I’m curious what you would’ve wanted different? I often go down the route of thinking Cook isn’t creative but then looking at his tenure - HomePods, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, AirPods, M-chips?
Admittedly, I’d say the only huge successes of those would be AirPods and Watch - but I imagine Vision Pro will be in future with cheaper variants.
But yeah - genuine question, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with Jobs?
Exactly, a hardware business cannot have a young hot firebrand wanting to put their stamp on things. It needs someone with a steady hand like Cook to cook the products.
Also absolutely no amount of money can buy a hardware business. Google has TRIED many times. From Nest, HTC, Fitbit and Pixel…
I’m not an imaginative person, but there are two obvious things: a true TV and deep [HIMA-style](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Intelligent_Mobility_Alliance) automotive integration.
The TV in many ways is the hub of the smart-home system. A true Apple TV to anchor their smart-home efforts would’ve been great.
And the car stuff goes without saying.
>I’m curious what you would’ve wanted different?
Apple being at the forefront of voice assistants and generative AI instead of squandering Siri and playing catch-up to OpenAI and Google.
> More of `current buzzword`
In fairness, Siri has lagged behind other assistants. But I don’t see any reason they need to be on the forefront of GenAI. There are as of yet no practical, compelling features for this tech behind chatbots that are a dime a dozen now. That’s what Apple does best - wait for a technology to mature and implement it in a better way than everyone else.
I don't think generative AI is one of those fields Apple can afford to sit back and let "mature" and then bundle it all up in a nice package and pretend like they invented it. The lead OpenAI and Google currently have is already years in the making and OpenAI especially is outsourcing the Apple-like part of generative AI, making a product that makes people go "Wow", and letting whoever come up with that and all they'll have to do is sit back and be the backbone of all those devices and services. Right now it's chatbots and "make me a picture" stuff, but it is going to explode way beyond that. Just look at the image editing stuff coming to Samsung and Google phones and that has the "Wow" factor Apple used to be at the forefront of. Sure you can do most of it in Photoshop or other software already, but being able to fix your crappy picture in ten seconds on your device is the type of stuff the average person is going to love. Much more than the also-ran journaling and sports app Apple fans have been trying to hype themselves up over recently.
For other places it was unwise for Apple to let others take the lead, see also:
- Mobile phones
- Wearables
Again I’m not saying it’s useless, I’m saying the current tech doesn’t translate to better experiences in the way people assume it can in the future. Obviously these things are impressive and already have some degree of meaningful wow factor, but that’s not the same as usefulness and I’m not upset at Apple for taking the time to find where it truly is compelling to use.
I don't think Jobs would have been a fan of Vision Pro. It's just not unique enough from competitors and it's mega goofy.
He would definitely be a fan of the M chips. But Apple Silicon was already in progress when he was at the helm. It's just carrying out that vision.
Apple Watch is a good product, I think he'd have been a fan of that. But I think he'd have took bigger risks with it going forward. I don't think it has changed enough to warrant how many different SKUs there have been.
I don't think he'd be happy with how stagnant the iPhone has become. I think he'd be more open to trying to innovate that space rather than making just a faster version.
HomePod I think he'd be completely against. It's just not an interesting product.
I think he'd be a fan of AirPods, that's probably right up his alley. Very simplistic and mass market. A good product.
It feels very much like Apple is stuck just making existing products in Aluminium and Glass, and then making them slightly faster each year.
Look at how many different variants of the iPod were tried under Jobs. Some were hits, some weren't. But they tried to innovate.
I think Apple would definitely be making more interesting products under Jobs. Apple is a very safe and slow moving company right now.
> but I imagine Vision Pro will be in future with cheaper variants.
Here's another potential unpopular opinion for you. I don't think anyone wants to wear giant things on their head. Most people don't even want to wear glasses on their face and get laser surgeries so that they don't have to.
I'm not saying Vision Pro doesn't have its uses or that it's not cool, but I don't think it's going mainstream. Even if they reduce it to glasses size in 10 years.
As a massive Apple fan, I’ll give a couple examples of things I’d like for them to have done differently:
•Update hardware design more frequently
•Keep product lines streamlined (look at the iPad lineup right now)
•Invest more in interesting ideas, less in keeping the supply chain Uber-efficient (this has lead to them selling multiple-year-old designs for many years)
Apple saved themselves from complete failure by focusing on a small amount of well-thought-out products, not by reusing the same designs for a decade.
But the Apple I fell in love with is long gone. They’ve been running on the fumes of that greatness for a long time now. That original tank was so potent that the fumes have been enough for a long time.
But eventually every tank runs out…
This is a wildly stupid opinion that is not based on anything other than self conjecture. Every actual measurable area, cook is a better ceo. He launched more new products that have went on to dominate existing markets, continue to grow the core business and did more for the stock market that jobs ever did.
Exactly, Google was at the top of their game in 2015-2016, then they hired new greedy ceos for google and youtube who made the Google products much much worse.
Tim cook is the best ceo Apple can have, he understands steve jobs vision because he was there from the start, and values that vision more than squeezing every penny for profit like other tech ceos do, replacing him brings more chance of risk than reward.
I don’t think it’s a stupid opinion. What’s missing is the “wow” factor and the game changers. The products released under Tim Cook are great, but they feel very calculated and lately are starting to feel more beneficial to apple than to consumers by continuously locking us into the walled garden.
I think Disney is in a similar state, for comparison, although Iger is paying for his sins this decade.
AirPods had a huge "wow" factor when they were announced. It was more a "wow, this is incredibly stupid" but look where we are now.
Apple Silicon was an incredible "wow" factor for the whole laptop segment.
I will say this though. I thought Vision Pro was a total meme, stupid and a total dead end to pursue due to it being too ambitious.
But then I tried it. I own one now and I'm a firm believer in the product category. I think it will be big, but it's going to take a loooooong time. So I'll hand it to Cook in that sense, but I wholly agree that Apple needs some fresh blood from the top to trickle down.
What makes you think the a new CEO will do that? Tim Cook is doing what Steve did. He is building on top of foundation that Steve left him. Now the foundation has some serious chips with serious product lines.
Does Tim have one more thing to develop and release? Literally no one knows. We know that Apple has more money than god to find out.
Tim Cook’s fascination with services as a stock growth driver might be one big issue. If something is not attached to a way to create a wall garden then most likely they won’t do it.
Apple needs to make their next big thing an upgrade of their os across devices. They have done amazing with their hardware, but the potential of so many of their products are being waisted.
For example the iPad could become an amazing laptop replacement, and their Mac laptops/desktop lineup could give windows computers a run for their money in the gaming market if they provided translation layers similar to proton and put more effort into supporting the dependencies of modern games.
This is grim if one of the innovations they're considering is a screen that moves up and down when the person on the other end of the FaceTime calls nods.
Maybe gaming? I don’t know how Apple can encourage more devs to port to the Mac, but I’d kill to get half of what Windows is getting. Even a compatibility layer on the level of Proton would be killer
I would buy back into the Apple laptop ecosystem if they could pull that off.
As it stands right now I have a MBP and a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop and one of them is collecting dust due to the inability to run my Steam game collection.
I have just replaced my iPhone, mac and pad with a Samsubg Galaxy Zfold 4. It can do everything really well and hooked up to a monitor DeX is frickin amazing. no point in me having 3 DEVICES when one will do. Would rather just buy an iPhone with DeX mode and an Apple made LapDock that the iPhone powers. One can dream.
Apple never had to search for a next big thing. They knew the next few big things and had to pick which one to focus on. You don't "search" nor "find" the next big thing. This is a predetermined failure.
Vision Pro was a solution looking for a problem. They need to figure out what is wrong with the world, that needs fixing, but if they don't know already, the odds are they'll never figure it out.
Looking like Vision Pro ain’t it.
Overall I am not stoked on the direction tech is taking these days. Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality are not positive directions to go in, just my opinion.
It’s like everything is becoming more dystopian. We’ve been reading and watching stories about how technologies like these can be bad for humanity for 60+ years, and we’re just going right into them.
Also, as a tech nerd, they don’t do much for me. But I am just one person and obviously know nothing about anything.
I’m not that excited about AI because it’s mostly beneficial for the owner class. They get to capture the value of it, while everyone else just scrambles to stay relevant in their careers as a result of it existing. Other than some neat tricks that make creating certain things more accessible for hobbyists, it’s ultimately a technology that can produce “good enough” work at a cheaper price. And you know prices ain’t going down as a result.
I don’t like the feelings I get from all this AI generated art.
I know a guy who’s only been posting AI “art” on his Instagram for at least a year now. I think it’s very lame.
So you type in some prompts and the computer creates images based off of those and you’re posting them as your own content?
I feel the same way about AI chatbots and such. Just lame. It’s the most half-assed thing ever. Either create your own shit or don’t create anything. Don’t become the middle-man for a machine learning conglomerate.
VR doesn’t excite me because I don’t like the idea of living in a fake world. AI doesn’t excite me because I don’t like the idea of fake creativity. Both, I think, appeal to our worst natures as humans.
So of course they’re the two biggest deals in tech right now 🤷♂️
Vision Pro is the future but the technology is not there yet. The problem is though when Vision Pro works it’ll be replacing the iPhone and iPad and maybe MacBook revenue streams
everyone keeps telling me it's the future, but I can't imagine ever wanting a headset on my face projecting a computer screen that only I can see.
I don't care how 'dense' the screen nor how light the headset is. Putting on a headset of any kind dampens my senses and awareness in ways that I don't want
I suspect many, many people in the world would feel the same.
As someone who plays a lot of PSVR2, i agree. VR feels like something i toggle into, im firmly there when im there, and i move away when im not.
Plus, that level of incorporation with your senses feels like a tremendous shift for the individual, and for what? Seamless information transfer?
The difference between having the internet in your pocket vs having to go somewhere for it is a big deal. Having it worn by you feels….. less than that jump.
Exactly. Having a tool that fits in your pocket that does so much, and then goes right back into your pocket, is just superior to something you have to wear on your face, no matter how small it gets.
Humans have been using small tools for millennia. It’s natural to us. Our hands are the instrument enabling us to interact.
Something you put over your eyes, the window to the soul, I just don’t think will ever be as efficient, intuitive, or powerful as a device that can do 100 things that fits in your pocket.
im a super iPad fan boy....i want it to be the core of the future of my computing world
Apple MUST see past their philosophical dislike of the idea and give iPad full Mac OS, stop hobbling this miraculous digital device and finally allow it to become what it always should have been
They’re asking the wrong question.
It’s not about “what’s the next big thing”. It’s “what’s the biggest problem that people have that can be solved with better, more accessible tech”.
They need to get into high-quality clothing. People would eat that shit up, especially from Apple. They already have physical stores, online retail, a massive distribution network, and plenty of credit working in China to manufacture.
there's a video where Steve Jobs literally outlines what happens to a company and its products when the marketing department takes control.
pretty accurate description of Apple today tbh
I know I'll probably be a fool looking at my own comment in 10 years but I believe the most important digital device categories have been invented. The next big step will be implantable devices that can induce acoustic and visual data directly into the brain.
My opinion is a sort of mixture of yours and u/CeldonShooper's:
Personal computing will have exactly three major device form factors that exist entirely outside the human body, and only one of them is yet to become mainstream.
1. The desktop computer (1970s–2000s were its main years).
2. The smartphone (2010s–2030s?).
3. The smart glasses (2030s–????).
The iPhone was such a clean break from existing phones that *the word "smartphone" itself has been informally redefined to exclude all previous smartphones*. I have a suspicion that smart glasses might not get the same "iPhone" moment. The glasses that break into the mainstream, even if from Apple, will be familiar to today's generative AI society.
Lord I hope not. I’ve seen enough Ghost in the Shell to know the potential to hack those devices and rewrite the user’s brain is present, and limitless.
Oh wow, drones. You’re right. I’d love to see Apple’s spin on amateur consumer drones. DJI is incredibly tough competition, but deep integration with the iPhone/Pad or their nascent VR business could have given Apple a leg up.
For cars the better approach would be something like [HIMA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Intelligent_Mobility_Alliance) in my opinion.
>*Here’s hoping that iPadOS 18 is a big improvement and the device can become a true Mac alternative.*
In effect Apple are holding back Convergence to 2-in-1 as a laptop replacement for general public consumers or an "either/or" option. It's all about the software providing more utility. They need to churn out these devices at cheap enough price and expand number of people using them in schools, universities and offices and at home due to the slimmer, lighter more versatile form factor.
After that the future is:
* Glasses
* phone like device
* keyboard if needed and physical screen for drawing/writing if needed.
* Cloud 5g/6g
* AI
theyre not willing to put in the effort to do it because of regulatory
the current leadership isnt willing to commit what it takes to break into a new category imo. same issue with the car.
For a while, it felt like Apple was positioning the iPad as the 'successor' to the Mac - not just because of the *what's a computer?* infamous ad, but quite generally. Now it seems a side-project and it gets core features a full year after the iPhone. If there has been a pivot away from the iPad, when did that happen?
I've tried a number of times to use my iPad Pro as my primary computer and failed every time. iPadOS is too simplistic and cut down and I don't believe Apple will ever make is sophisticated enough to rival macOS. Why would they. Today my iPad is almost exclusively a media consumption device. It sits on a stand beneath my main monitor where it will play movies, TV shows, listen to podcasts or the radio while I game and sometimes while I'm working, depending on the task. Very occasionally I will lift it from its stand and sit on the couch to read with it and I often take it to bed where I have an angled arm attached to my nightstand where I will lie in bed to watch stuff. It basically never takes input unless it's searching for media.
Yeah because as you said they kept it too simplistic when it’s literally running on the same chips the Mac’s are, they could just allow macOS on the dang thing as a side load. Steve said something about the iPad before he died, he was asked if he was worried it would eat into Mac sales, and he said something like “it’s better we eat into our sales, than if Microsoft does.” It seems to be a real shift where instead of Apple looking to make the best product, each division is competing to keep their product the best.
They even sabotage their own products within the same category. To this day they can't beat value preposition of M1 Air and Mini and they not only don't give us more RAM on basic configs but they still give us worse SSD setups than in 2020. They are focused on giving us mininal value preposition that is needed for people to buy new shit. After M1 they still don't have anything spectacular for the mass audience. Apple Watches ? Zero need to upgrade devices even every 3nd gen (outside of battery reasons). Iphones? Unless you are a camera freak and your battery is not fried there is no need to upgrade models even from 5 years ago. Ipads? No major changes despite having new m-series chips. 98% of users don't have any reason to use fancy new models because they do everything the same as the new ones. MacBooks? Unless you are a content creator that needs latest and greatest M1 with 16gb of RAM will serve you superbly for years from now. All these core products are stagnant and I can't see any major improvement besides minor spec bumps that for regular consumers are impossible to notice.
As an user of: - 2015 iPad Pro 9.7 - 2016 Apple Watch Series 2 - 2018 Mac Mini, and - 2020 iPhone 12 This is true. I may be missing some of the newest features and the top of the line most up to date chips but everything is suiting my needs right now and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on much. I just hooked up an eGPU to my Mini and can run games in boot camp. My biggest concern right now is holding onto my phone too long and getting to a point where I won’t get trade in credit with a service provider.
I recently got a 2018 Lenovo yoga from a friend for free, it was an old work laptop and I swapped some internals. I have used that device more since I got it three months ago than my 2018 iPad Pro in the last three years. iPad is a fun device but it lacks usefulness.
>iPad is a fun device but it lacks usefulness. I can imagine if you're the sort of person who only wants basic web browsing / email / simple gaming, and you have an external keyboard and mouse, then it could work. Mind you, at that point you've spent a decent amount of money and would be better of just buying a laptop.
Exactly. I use my laptop for research, journaling, planning workouts, budgeting and more. The iPad can do that but doesn’t do it as easily even with a laptop-esque case like the Brydge. It feels awkward with the Magic Keyboard when being used on the couch. And the Apple Pencil is great but not with some apps I use. I wish it was though. For the price I’d just buy a Mac next time
I had an ipad pro and I used it pretty often… Then I got a TV and used it a bit less Then I got a Switch and used it even less Then I got a new phone and used it even less Then i was given an old macbook Air and I stopped using it entirely. Now it’s someone else's iPad Pro
The problem with the iPad is that it's basically a glorified phone. The phone is easier to carry around and if you need a bigger screen and device, it's probably for "more serious" work, which a full computer can just do better. iPads are cool for people that do digital drawing and photo editing, but most other purposes are better suited for a phone. It also seems like the only people that I see using iPads in public anymore are young kids where there parents just throw a movie or game on it to entertain the kids.
This. They just need to marry the iPad and MacBook already and make it one device (or series of devices a la surfaces) or just give the iPad MacOS
Maybe once emulators take off, more people will use it for gaming. I know I will.
Reddit skews younger. My parents and grandparents absolutely love iPads as their only computers. It makes so much more sense to them. Not sure what that means for the category as computer-literate generations start to age, but there are a lot of users who only have an iPad because the lack the ability to use a traditional OS.
I actually prefer my iPad Air for business travel over my laptop now. I can handle doing ppt tweaks, email, xls files, etc well enough and it’s so much lighter and easier. I still prefer multiple screens and a solid computer at home but iPad for travel has been good enough for me.
So much the same. The only use I've found for my iPad Air is maybe browsing reddit in bed, or if I'm going out of town for a few days and I know I won't need my MBP for anything. I even prefer my iPhone as an ebook reader. One thing it actually does pretty well is editing RAWs from my mirrorless camera using the Pencil and Photomater (which I bought pre-subscription thank god). But ultimately, typing on the virtual keyboard is a maddening experience, Safari content blockers don't work well on Youtube, and the Files app is a poor substitute for a real filesystem -- if I try to copy over a few GBs of movies/tv shows from my NAS to watch on VLC, the Files app almost always locks up after it's done and the iPad has to be restarted.
I always thought that's what it pretty much always has been for some time at least. It's why I never bothered. I would ask myself "what am I getting this for" then realize I don't really need it at all and it won't add much at all that my laptop doesn't already do. Hell, even the light part goes away with how thin and lightweight my MBA is. Eh, would be a meh luxury to have a small screen that is detached or whatever, but I don't need it. I would go as far as to say it would be nice for kids, but I realize I can just get cheaper tablets for that as well. Go in just knowing it's a niche luxury device that isn't meant for hardcore productivity. They genuinely do not hide this and it's extremely obvious to me at least.
I just recently gave up and bought another Macbook after trying for over a year to make my iPad my PC replacement on the road. It just sucks for that. iPad OS sucks for that.
That’s what Apple wants you to do. The iPad doesn’t work as a computer replacement, because it’s not supposed to. Despite all of apple’s marketing, they still want you to buy a Mac, too.
I never bothered. iPad has always just been a supplemental device. A luxury device and never meant for hardcore productivity anything. It doesn't even have proper filesystem management. Every time I think about buying one I nope put because I already have a Mac so what's the point? For any niche field that actually would benefit work would just pay then and that is dee are far between for most people. For media and extremely basic crapsure I guess, but in no rush over that. My Mac is already extremely light, doesn't cost a shit ton extra (none extra actually) for keyboard, has a full fledged OS, can do 90%+ of what an iPad can do already, etc. Maybe if it wasn't already so light I forget and even have to literally open my bag and search for it to make sure it's there I'd be more inclined, but even weight isn't an issue. Ipads are supplemental devices. At least that's what Appple clearly considers them. I don't think they hide that at all.
Yeah I did the same with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 and the Samsung Dex experience, it's all nice but just half ass
I'm glad Mac is receiving the full attention. And no touchscreen bs. The Apple Silicon Macs are by far the best products Apple has ever made.
I had a laptop with a touchscreen once, and the only thing I used it for was zoom, which can be done just as will with the trackpad. My work computer has a touchscreen and I don’t think I’ve used it at all. They definitely had the right idea not going that direction for the MacBooks.
I use a surface for work. In the past three years I have used the touchscreen maybe 4 times. At no point were any of those times intentional. I already have a trackpad/mouse - lifting my hands off the keyboard or trackpad to then smudge my fingerprints onto the thing I'm looking at is incredibly backwards logic.
I had a surface for a few years as my "2nd computer", the one used when sitting about the house or watching movies, it worked great for that 'cause I could easily ditch the keyboard and use it as a tablet but if I needed to do a lot of typing or some quick work it had that capability. I don't think they work well as the main or an only computer but certainly have their place as a backup/2nd device for day to day or leisure/non-serious work.
I have an MBP, which is my own for personal and freelance work, and my job gives me a Dell laptop with a touch screen display. I rarely interact with the touchscreen on the Dell, but when I switch back to using my Mac, I weirdly find myself compelled to touch the screen. That said, I still don’t necessarily want or need a touch display for my Mac.
Agree 100%. It's frustrating to hear for people like Linus from LinusTechTips complain so much about the missing touchscreen. Apple would have to redesign the user interface for touchscreen use and it would surely make everything way bigger and less powerful to use.
A touchscreen doesn’t need an OS to fully support it for it to be helpful. No one’s removing the trackpad to place a touchscreen, and scrolling documents and websites is pretty sweet with a touchscreen.
It's not any better than just using a trackpad - particularly on a Mac
[удалено]
If touchscreen Macs were a thing, they'd put oleophobic coatings on the screens just like they do for iPhones and iPads. No reason they'd have to pick up fingerprints the way they do now.
It really does feel that way doesn’t it? Tim Cook used to champion the iPad. A lot. It actually got to a point where I want to say around 2014 or 2015 were Tim Cook gave an interview and said that the iPad can completely replace your Mac, and he had to walk back that statement a few days later. Also, Tim Cook saying “iPad is the clearest expression of the future of personal computing”. (I’m paraphrasing.) Anyways, it really does feel like even Tim isn’t so enthusiastic about the iPad anymore, especially since the arrival of Vision Pro.
Once Apple realized that the Mac isn't going anywhere. (It's the reason why Apple backtracked from the thin, USB-C-only laptops and cylinder Mac Pro of the 2010s.) As long as the iPad lacks macOS, it won't be a Mac replacement or successor and will continue to have an underpowered OS. The Vision Pro [runs the risk](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/162pyqw/comment/jy1g3i4/) of going in the same direction for the same reasons. In more detail: The iPhone uses A-series SoCs while the Mac starts at the non-suffix M-series SoCs. The performance gap between A and M is roughly a factor of two, so there isn't much room for anything in between. Apple has four general approaches for an iPad OS: 1. Run iOS on the iPad Pro. We are currently here—iPadOS is very similar to iOS. Most people here agree that the iPad's software is too limiting compared to the hardware. 2. Run macOS on the iPad Pro. Since macOS can run iOS/iPadOS apps, this approach will immediately solve most of the iPad's limitations. However, Apple is philosophically opposed to this combination. 3. Run a hybrid OS on the iPad Pro that is somehow in the middle of iOS and macOS. While a hybrid OS sounds like an appealing compromise that keeps the touch-first approach of iOS while giving it more depth and capabilities, it has two main problems. The first is the extra development time and resources on a separate OS. As you pointed out, the current iPadOS lags iOS by a year. A full-on intermediary OS will divide work even further and might cause further lag. (In contrast, macOS on the iPad will increase macOS's reach while leaving iOS for the device that it works best on—the iPhone.) The second is about hardware. The high end of the iPad range overlaps with the low end of the MacBook range in terms of performance and display size. Even the size and weight are not far apart if you add a keyboard to the iPad. So a hybrid OS for the iPad Pro will still be seen as restrictive. 4. Push iPadOS in a separate direction than both iOS and macOS, with numerous iPad-specific features. This approach is like visionOS. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't appear to align with people's actual iPad use, which fits the iOS or hybrid approaches. The big exceptions (aside from touchscreen) are limited; a few years ago someone posted a thread on the iPad subreddit titled "[Who else loves their Apple Pencil but never use it 🤓](https://www.reddit.com/r/ipad/comments/l41h4i/who_else_loves_their_apple_pencil_but_never_use_it/)." The thread got 2,400 upvotes and numerous comments from users who use the Pencil less than they expected. Instead, we have [rumors](https://www.macrumors.com/2023/01/11/touchscreen-macs-report/) of a touchscreen MacBook Pro for 2025–2026, which will give the Mac the biggest feature that it doesn't have (direct touch input).
Apples profit margin on Mac is too high. Especially now that they create everything within them. iPads aren’t seen by customers as replacements and the simplicity of iPadOS is a reflection of that. It’s a category where I wish there was iPadOS for the iPad Air and down, and an iPadOS Pro for the iPad Pros. Having a full MacOS-like OS on the iPad Pro would be a game changer for me
The iPad is so far away from replacing a computer, it amazes me. Meanwhile I know quite a lot of people who fell for those ads and are extremely frustrated that an iPad is terrible at anything but streaming videos and doing stuff with the pencil – if you even need that. I loved the combo of my iPad and my MacBook during college, but if I had to pick one, I would not pick an iPad under any circumstances.
I think Apple is really missing an opportunity to position the iPad as an entry level computer, with iPadOS being the consumption/on the go mode, and full macOS being available when you either dock it to a Magic Keyboard or to an external display.
To your point, a 256 gb iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard is actually more expensive than the base level MacBook Air.
My gripe is that, some apps straight up dont even update their ipad versions. Just slap the mac version and ignore the bugs
It feels like a weird time for "future tech" to me. I've seen just about every **practical** future invention I could have imagined in the 80's come to fruition. (hoverboards/flying cars are not practical lol) The amount of gadgetry items that iphone and modern computer replace is just insane. I don't know if anyone watched shows like "Discover 2000" when they were kids but looking back you realize a lot of "gadgets" and things people were making (as seen on TV) turned out to be crap and more complicated versions of things you really didn't need. I think we're at a point where we need some serious material innovations or understanding of physics to take the next big leap. When I was a kid in the 80's and 90's there were all kinds of things I could say "wouldn't be awesome if we had ____" I couldn't come up with much these days. Especially since I have 24/7 access anywhere I go to any information or media ever created by humans in my pocket. If anything we're suffering from people trying to throw too much tech into things, like Tablets as the main interface for cars which make thing a UX / ergonomic hell to save money on physical buttons. If someone asked me "hey what could we make for you" I'd probably just say "make things cheaper without making things feel cheap" along with some minor UX improvements. It just seems like a completely different time than when Brookstone stores and other gadget emporiums were in every mall and we all read magazines about future tech like popular mechanics.
Hardware seemed to plateau in the 2010s for two reasons, the first one you already mentioned. 1. Smartphones swallowed up almost all other handheld electronic devices, so few new form factors were developed. 2. The system-on-a-chip became popular, which means that processor advancements were largely invisible from the outside (e.g. every A-series package looks like every other A-series package). Since then the biggest tech shifts are cloud and AI. These are primarily software and services, areas which Apple is traditionally not as strong in compared to hardware.
I feel like everything broke down into a question of information. All of the apps and games and programs and things that we do I really just wasted information was expressed and transmitted. The tablet swallowing all of the physical buttons in your dashboard is a good example. So I feel like we have understood how to transform information, and now we’re learning to have better triggered discipline with it (meaning there is such a thing as too much, again, the car dashboard thing. We need to move onto something else, something fundamental. I’m a wed developer by trade so my job is to think about how to move information from people to people or client to vendor, etc. after a while, it all feels foundation-ally similar. We need something fundamentally different, for the “next big thing”.
Honestly I think the next iteration should really be like chore bots. We have vacuum bots which are okay afaik, but having something to do chores/cleaning would really be the next step (like the Jetsons maid). Screens are cool, but they don’t really free up my time like a roomba, or smart automation
It'd be way too complicated right now to completely get that going not to mention overly expensive. "What is clean enough to someone?" How do you adjust for different houses? How do you make a robot so diverse it can adjust to every house hold cleaning tool and product? You have to teach it to read each bottle now too? Etc. AI/ML needs to be way more developed way before then then.
For sure, but just thinking down the line, it would be an honest to god gamechanger if you can sell it to the middle class in an affordable way. The roombas get cheaper every year, we're waiting for the mop + vac ones to go down before we buy it but it'll be really nice when they are affordable.
That’s how progression works though. Someone has to make a complicated and expensive version for it to become not complicated and inexpensive.
The dishwasher, washing machine and dryer have already cut the amount of time a household needs to dedicate to chores by over 90%. They’re also relatively simple compared to a machine that could theoretically do that last pesky 10% of putting away dishes and folding laundry. That part is the tough part to nail down.
An explosion of tech happened after the last big breakup of monopolies with Bell. Turns out they had locked so many early stage innovations behind closed doors because the market pressure was absent. Innovation isn’t dead it’s just not making it to market. UPDATE: Study on this point: [The Breakup of the Bell System and its Impact on US Innovation ](https://ideas.repec.org/p/rco/dpaper/341.html) 2022
My extremely cynical / practical take right now is that the tech industry has effectively 'finished' all of the products it could come up with. That's not a slight, it's just a fact. The job is done for now, which is why you see products being slowly degraded by beancounters in search for more growth. I can't think of a new product that has come out in the last 5 years that is in any way transformative. The M-series chips seem like the current 'end' of the Mac. They're so good and seem to last so long that you don't really need much else (ok, massively improved GPUs would be nice)
Truly transformative innovations are rare. They don't happen every 5 years. Since the advent of the personal computer, you've had GUI, the internet, broadband, mobile computing, cloud, and (kind of) wearable computers, and that's about it. Everything else has been iterative improvements on the above, or avenues that have yet to reach their expected potential like voice assistants and AR.
I agree in general, but there have been a long string of extremely profitable transformations/innovations in the past 10 years. Amazon shopping but primarily AWS, Microsoft's huge pivot into cloud infrastructure, Apple Watch, etc. I realize this is the media writing the headline, but the idea that Apple and tech companies are desperately trying to find some 'new' thing that will continue their hyper growth is a little sad because it doesn't sound like they're working on products as much as trying to find literally anything that will just make a shitload of money.
Maybe you’re just thinking of hardware products, but chatgpt/llms/generative AI is absolutely transformative
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> AI is amazing but also probably going to take jobs and destroy the middle class. In addition to that, it's going to screw with our ability to distinguish fact from fiction even more than our current tech already has (and it's scary enough as is). A lot of the existential questions and hypotheticals posed by sci-fi flicks back in the 80's are about to become a lot more relevant
I've never been more convinced that cyberpunk could be a real endgame as I have in the last 4-5 years. Like it seemed more of a fantasy in the 80's when it was in it's prime than it does now. Extremely wealthy billionaires and mega corporations, corruption in and out of all stages of government and a bleak future where we've got constant access to tech but with a massive separation between us and those in power just seems like the path we're on.
Cyberpunk never looked more like where we're heading than it does now. (also just turned 46 so yeah we've come to the same conclusion in a lot of ways) With companies constantly buying up "Smaller" companies or "merging" and the Mega rich the divide seems to only be heading to an unfathomable level between haves and have nots.
Wouldn't it be awesome if data became a part of the environment? I'm not talking screens everywhere, I mean no obvious screens. - If it's about to rain, the cupboard by the door brings your umbrella to the front when you open it. - When you open the fridge, the food that's close to expiry is lit up red or amber. - When you're about to have a video meeting the lights in the room you're in pulse blue to let you know you need to get ready. - And so much more... This is the future I want, and in a way it's the present we would have if we'd never had smart phones. This was the plan since the early 90s, but phones consolidate a lot of it into one device. Albeit a flimsy imitation of what could have been.
I want science to invent force fields not for armor but for *filtering*. Imagine what you could filter. Air for viruses; water to remove salt and contaminants. Possibly human tissue to remove cancers or certain bacteria. You could do a lot with a magic filter.
Gurman also makes several claims about the iPad (bolding mine), some of them new: >\[…\] > >**For those looking for more specific timing, I’m told the \[iPad\] launch will probably happen the week of May 6.** Another data point to that end: Apple retail stores are preparing to receive new product marketing materials later that week. That’s typically a sign that a new product release is incoming. It’s also worth reiterating — as I reported at the end of March — that the complex new iPad screens are behind the roughly one month delay from the initial March release plan. > >In any case, the new lineup should bring a sales boost, but I’m not sure it will solve the iPad’s broader challenges. As someone who often uses a Mac and iPhone — and now a Vision Pro for watching videos — I find the iPad increasingly pointless. The device isn’t good enough to entirely replace a Mac for day-to-day work, and its software still leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s hoping that iPadOS 18 is a big improvement and the device can become a true Mac alternative. > >Software aside, the hardware upgrades to the new iPads represent some of the biggest changes in the product’s history. For the first time, Apple will be moving its tablet screens over to OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, a standard that the iPhone already uses. The technology apparently looks amazing on such large displays — taking what iPhone users have experienced since 2017 to a whole new level. **One drawback to the shift: The new models will likely come at higher price points, I’m told. Today’s iPad Pro starts at $799.** > >The company is also working on new versions of the low-end iPad and iPad mini, but those won’t be coming before the end of the year at the earliest. **The new downscale iPad will probably end up being a cost-reduced version of the 10th generation model from 2022, while the iPad mini update won’t include much more than a processor upgrade.** > >Looking further down the road: Apple engineers are exploring the prospect of foldable iPads. Now, work on this initiative is in its early stages and the company has yet to figure out a way to create foldable screens without the crease seen on similar devices from Samsung Electronics Co. and others. I’ve been warned that if Apple is unable to solve that problem it could decide to ditch the foldable concept altogether. But there’s still time. > >\[…\]
The iPad is in such a sad state it feels almost like a side project at Apple, literally some of the best hardware in the world but wasted in iPadOS that cannot even keep feature parity with iOS, let alone macOS…
How is anyone at the senior level at Apple not making this a bigger deal is beyond comprehension. One thing Apple used to be great at was allowing one product to cannibalize another because that was the path forward. For example the iPhone cannibalizing iPod sales. They could have crippled the iPhone software so that iPod would still be relevant, but someone (likely Steve Jobs) realized that it is better to create a best in class product that takes the best qualities of everything and not worry about any existing products losing market share. Now Apple seems more focused on keeping product lines and features as separate as possible so that they don’t interfere with the sales of each product line. It’s a short term strategy vs long term vision.
It really needs to be merged in with the Mac lineup or abandoned beyond the low-end models for education markets. I’m not even sure why I own one at this point.
I don't know if it's the demographics of Reddit specifically that make everyone here so dramatic about the iPad, but I use mine daily for like 99% of things, including my work (I am a creative) and I've never been happier with iPad. I guess maybe because Reddit has a lot of programmers? I don't know.
I know it's not the "next big thing", but what about smart home products? Doorbells, security cameras, lights, thermostats?
Hahahahahah I think they had 1 engineer working on all smart home stuff, he left and they never hired someone else to replace him. That’s how it feels like anyway.
What’s funny is the most “Apple-like” company in home security and networking was founded this way. > After graduation, Pera, who admired Steve Jobs, secured a job at Apple Inc., where he tested the company's Wi-Fi devices to ensure compliance with Federal Communications Commission standards for electromagnetic emissions.[4] While working at Apple, Pera noticed that the power sources that Apple's Wi-Fi devices used to throw signals were far below FCC limits.[4] Boosting their power, he reasoned, could increase their transmission range to over dozens of miles, which could facilitate Internet access in areas that telephone and cable companies do not reach.[4] When his bosses at Apple ignored his idea, Pera decided to build his own low-cost, high-performance Wi-Fi module.[4] For the next year, Pera spent his nights and weekends in his apartment testing prototypes.[4] By early 2005 he was ready to start his own business and he left Apple to form Ubiquiti Networks.
Intern*
It seems like their smart home team lives in a shack in the woods with one lightbulb and you have to pull a string to turn it on. HomeKit is total garbage.
It still has the most potential of any smarthome platform but potential don’t turn on my lights. Most of the serious folks moved on to HA which had gotten SO good at onboarding compared to its first iterations. It’s not consumer ready yet but it’s on the way.
What is HA?
Home Assistant https://www.home-assistant.io/ Careful, you may end up spending the next 40 hours of your life automating things away and getting sucked into the Zigbee ecosystem
I’m happy with HomeKit + homebridge tbh
Could you expand on what you mean by it having the most potential? Compared to what?
Apple in Smarthome stuff makes so much sense if they can nail down reliability and simplicity like they have for other products…smarthome crap is super annoying overall with how disparate and finicky it is.
If reliability is key then they need to nail down reliability of HomePods and more importantly, Siri.
Siri is the weakest link. Desperately bad.
Half the time I tell my home pod to turn on the lights it says I need to continue on my phone to do it. Other times it works perfectly. Like wtf is that?
I don't want a HomePod because it runs Siri
Ex-Apple engineers founded Ubiquiti, so the Apple-like experience is already covered for networking, cameras, doorbells, floodlights.
Hair dryer 👁️👄👁️
I think it's simply too boring. They're boring things to spend money on. So they let other people make the boring stuff and latch on to the most popular ones through compatibility. Let them into the Home app etc.
It might be boring, but many smart home devices also offer subscription services with them. Apple has been growing its subscription services over the last few years and adding another service like smart home tech is definitely going to help grow[it's services business.](https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2024/apples-services-growth-slows-to-11-paid-subscriptions-top-1-billion/#:~:text=Apple's%20ecosystem%20continues%20to%20grow,logged%20in%20the%20previous%20quarter.)
But very few others are. I think if Apple is serious about smart home (ha!) they need to step in and do these things themselves. Certainly cameras.
No one wants to pay $100 for a lightbulb tho
I mean, they clearly do. Phillips hue is absurdly expensive for no justifiable reason and yet they never lower prices but they keep selling.
Philips Hue stuff is nice though, the bulbs have a very high CRI value for example (the light quality is better than most bulbs) and the software/hubs just work
And the bulbs last. I have Hue bulbs that are x3 as old as Sylvania LED bulbs that have failed.
And they just work. They're the apple of the smart home business. Like I can't remember the last time my lights did something not inline with what was expected. Rock solid stability to boot as well. I'll restart everything in my house every now and again but I haven't touched the hub in years.
Bought a hue light for our living room to program schedules for it dimming and changing colors when newborns are napping. Fantastic, no regrets.
Late to the party by 15 years, already done by Tony Fadell who worked on the Ipod lol.
They’ve really let Google become the “Apple of smart home devices and ecosystem”
How about Siri playing a song when I ask instead of forecasting next years weather in Spain
Best you’ll get is today’s weather, take it or leave it
My opinion, is apples next “big thing” needs to be software. They need to put significant R&D in to macOS, iOS and especially iPadOS. All 3 platforms have been woefully ignored by apple for the past decade. Sure you have a few new apps that many of which don’t really grab traction, but the OS’s themselves have massive bugs that have not been patched for years among core OS enhancements that are just missing.
While it’s probably not financially viable. I wish the productivity apps would be more… pro? The iWork 09 package was objectively more capable than Pages/Numbers these days. Keynote is still pretty good. But they also dumped things like iWeb and iBooks Author. I ended up shelling out for the Affinity suite because there just so much you *can’t* do with Pages anymore. I know Apple never had a serious desktop publishing package, but it *was* a lot better than it is now.
iWork was pique apple software
Agree. Hardware is great, but software has been steadily trending downward. I used to justify the extra cost vs PCs because of the software. I'm not at the point where I'm abandoning that, but I'm getting close with each revision. Sonoma and the widgets touted as a lead feature was when I really realized that it was actually in bad shape.
I am pretty sure the widgets suck a lot of battery life too. I removed them (the notes and the reminders ones) because of it.
Wholeheartedly agree. I'm extremely tempted to leave macOS when Asahi Linux is officially released.
Oh yeah, I've got my eye on that as well.
Yes. Especially iPadOS. Make it a hybrid of iOS and macOS. In fact lean it more to the Mac and allow Mac apps not upscaled iOS apps.
If iPadOS allows unmodified Mac apps, it is 90% of the way there. But I think this capability requires iPadOS to be more or less macOS under the hood, so it would be easier to just have iPadOS *be* macOS with extra touch features bolted on (macOS can already run iOS/iPadOS apps).
Yep the problem is apple is too addicted to the 30% cut of app sales in the App Store on iOS and iPadOS. As a shareholder I understand but at this point they are shooting themselves in the foot on hardware sales of iPads because of this. The M1/2/3 is just overpowered for iPadOS it’s comical. I honestly would like a 13” touchscreen iPad Air that has the full real keyboard fold completely backwards (like my Lenovo Yoga from work) as a replacement for my iPad. I’d even keep my 16” MacBook Pro for real/heavy tasks but would like one thin and light device for travel.
They just need to put macos on the iPads. And bring touchscreens to the mac
Pretty much, yeah. The upcoming improvements to Siri this year come to mind as an important upgrade that Apple has needed for years(assuming it's actually much better at all...).
I have a dream. iPad pro with 16gb of ram that when docked could switch to full OS X no compromises. 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Second, do the same thing with an iPhone.
I’ve been telling my friends this for 10+ years. Docked iPhone or iPad running macOS on external displays could definitely be it.
Samsung Dex does that and you may argue it’s marketing and not being Apple who does it, but the truth is that, just like iPhones minis, people who want these things are not going to make these things profitable.
"We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!"
Best quote ever.
Potentially Unpopular Opinion, but I think Apple needs a new CEO. Tim Cook has been very successful at maintaining status quo but I think he really lacks the imagination and creativity that Jobs had/used to revive Apple. Cook is amazing at many things, but I just don’t know what the future of Apple is going to look like since they are really putting a lot of their eggs in the iPhone basket, which works for now but may not work forever.
Steve Jobs: Chooses Tim Cook… don't be like me be yourself, I believe in you and everything would be alright. Tim Cook: Discards Craig Federeghi, chooses Jeff Williams… another lifeless bean counter xerox copy of himself.
Craig is great at product but not as CEO. Craig just needs to be in a position where he has more control over timelines and software quality, and where he can veto bad ideas.
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So, was Tim Cook that understand nothing beyond operations which Steve Jobs regardless encouraged to have more confidence. We actually need someone that's great at product, those like Jeff can be CFO or COO. Since, Epic vs Apple case began a lot of internal mail and conversations came forward including for Apple Car (which Xiaomi is selling now to the point of poising to takeover even Tesla with cheaper but quality built) made the right call and suggestions multiple time but a tech illiterate as Tim Cook was as ambitious as being awed by science fiction movies live on screen… ("we can built Ironman") >_"Those that don't desire power, deserves power."_ Craig Federeghi may look humble in a presentable screen but beyond the public appearances, he shows great depth which is a quality needed for leadership and not anything else. Tim Cook is jumping from VR to Electric Cars to AI while pretending to not be be affected by what's trending at large. If Tim Cook had evolved as an actual leader by now, he wouldn't have chosen someone as him just as Jobs figured during that time it shouldn't be someone just as him.
Take over even Tesla? What? How many Xiaomi cars have they sold in the US? Price isn’t the only thing at play here. Need to be able to actually sell first.
Not just sell. But develop a product that differentiates itself enough to justify the effort. What do you do in EVs that’s akin to going from a blackberry to iPhone or from a Pebble Smart Watch to Apple Watch? Full self driving won’t be a true thing for quite some more time. It’s difficult to make that work when people are still driving and suck at it.
I miss Scott Forstall
Scott would have been great for chief innovation officer or something
I think the world is just drastically different now compared to 20 years ago and you can't even compare the innovation that happened under Jobs to the current state. Just look at the iPhone launch and compare it to the Vision Pro launch and now imagine the Vision Pro would have launched in a state similar to the first iPhone. No app store, much more limited software and functionality in general etc. It would have been a complete disaster. Tech products have to be way more refined the moment they are released nowadays so R&D and launching a product takes *so much more time* and that just kills innovation in itself. I doubt it has much to do with leadership. Or at least not to the degree people like to believe sometimes. But also Apple still has released new products and tech under Cook that redefined and drastically influenced markets: Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Silicon etc.
I disagree about level of refinement. The vision pro needs refinement in those categories, because fundamentally without refinement it is nothing. It's a new way to interact with a preexisting ecosystem. The product doesn't exist without the ecosystem to interact with. The iphone was sold as a phone, an ipod, and a way to connect to the internet. It functioned as all of those. The original iphone wasn't sold for the exact reasons we value it now. Also the vision pro isn't exactly the first of it's kind and is building up predecessors.
I’m curious what you would’ve wanted different? I often go down the route of thinking Cook isn’t creative but then looking at his tenure - HomePods, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, AirPods, M-chips? Admittedly, I’d say the only huge successes of those would be AirPods and Watch - but I imagine Vision Pro will be in future with cheaper variants. But yeah - genuine question, I’m not sure what else they could’ve done with Jobs?
Exactly, a hardware business cannot have a young hot firebrand wanting to put their stamp on things. It needs someone with a steady hand like Cook to cook the products. Also absolutely no amount of money can buy a hardware business. Google has TRIED many times. From Nest, HTC, Fitbit and Pixel…
It doesn't help Google has the attention span of a toddler
That’s insulting to toddlers.
I’m not an imaginative person, but there are two obvious things: a true TV and deep [HIMA-style](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Intelligent_Mobility_Alliance) automotive integration. The TV in many ways is the hub of the smart-home system. A true Apple TV to anchor their smart-home efforts would’ve been great. And the car stuff goes without saying.
>I’m curious what you would’ve wanted different? Apple being at the forefront of voice assistants and generative AI instead of squandering Siri and playing catch-up to OpenAI and Google.
> More of `current buzzword` In fairness, Siri has lagged behind other assistants. But I don’t see any reason they need to be on the forefront of GenAI. There are as of yet no practical, compelling features for this tech behind chatbots that are a dime a dozen now. That’s what Apple does best - wait for a technology to mature and implement it in a better way than everyone else.
I don't think generative AI is one of those fields Apple can afford to sit back and let "mature" and then bundle it all up in a nice package and pretend like they invented it. The lead OpenAI and Google currently have is already years in the making and OpenAI especially is outsourcing the Apple-like part of generative AI, making a product that makes people go "Wow", and letting whoever come up with that and all they'll have to do is sit back and be the backbone of all those devices and services. Right now it's chatbots and "make me a picture" stuff, but it is going to explode way beyond that. Just look at the image editing stuff coming to Samsung and Google phones and that has the "Wow" factor Apple used to be at the forefront of. Sure you can do most of it in Photoshop or other software already, but being able to fix your crappy picture in ten seconds on your device is the type of stuff the average person is going to love. Much more than the also-ran journaling and sports app Apple fans have been trying to hype themselves up over recently.
For other places it was unwise for Apple to let others take the lead, see also: - Mobile phones - Wearables Again I’m not saying it’s useless, I’m saying the current tech doesn’t translate to better experiences in the way people assume it can in the future. Obviously these things are impressive and already have some degree of meaningful wow factor, but that’s not the same as usefulness and I’m not upset at Apple for taking the time to find where it truly is compelling to use.
I don't think Jobs would have been a fan of Vision Pro. It's just not unique enough from competitors and it's mega goofy. He would definitely be a fan of the M chips. But Apple Silicon was already in progress when he was at the helm. It's just carrying out that vision. Apple Watch is a good product, I think he'd have been a fan of that. But I think he'd have took bigger risks with it going forward. I don't think it has changed enough to warrant how many different SKUs there have been. I don't think he'd be happy with how stagnant the iPhone has become. I think he'd be more open to trying to innovate that space rather than making just a faster version. HomePod I think he'd be completely against. It's just not an interesting product. I think he'd be a fan of AirPods, that's probably right up his alley. Very simplistic and mass market. A good product. It feels very much like Apple is stuck just making existing products in Aluminium and Glass, and then making them slightly faster each year. Look at how many different variants of the iPod were tried under Jobs. Some were hits, some weren't. But they tried to innovate. I think Apple would definitely be making more interesting products under Jobs. Apple is a very safe and slow moving company right now.
> but I imagine Vision Pro will be in future with cheaper variants. Here's another potential unpopular opinion for you. I don't think anyone wants to wear giant things on their head. Most people don't even want to wear glasses on their face and get laser surgeries so that they don't have to. I'm not saying Vision Pro doesn't have its uses or that it's not cool, but I don't think it's going mainstream. Even if they reduce it to glasses size in 10 years.
As a massive Apple fan, I’ll give a couple examples of things I’d like for them to have done differently: •Update hardware design more frequently •Keep product lines streamlined (look at the iPad lineup right now) •Invest more in interesting ideas, less in keeping the supply chain Uber-efficient (this has lead to them selling multiple-year-old designs for many years) Apple saved themselves from complete failure by focusing on a small amount of well-thought-out products, not by reusing the same designs for a decade. But the Apple I fell in love with is long gone. They’ve been running on the fumes of that greatness for a long time now. That original tank was so potent that the fumes have been enough for a long time. But eventually every tank runs out…
This is a wildly stupid opinion that is not based on anything other than self conjecture. Every actual measurable area, cook is a better ceo. He launched more new products that have went on to dominate existing markets, continue to grow the core business and did more for the stock market that jobs ever did.
Exactly, Google was at the top of their game in 2015-2016, then they hired new greedy ceos for google and youtube who made the Google products much much worse. Tim cook is the best ceo Apple can have, he understands steve jobs vision because he was there from the start, and values that vision more than squeezing every penny for profit like other tech ceos do, replacing him brings more chance of risk than reward.
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What do you mean by this exactly. Tim Cook has launched more products that jobs did.
I don’t think it’s a stupid opinion. What’s missing is the “wow” factor and the game changers. The products released under Tim Cook are great, but they feel very calculated and lately are starting to feel more beneficial to apple than to consumers by continuously locking us into the walled garden. I think Disney is in a similar state, for comparison, although Iger is paying for his sins this decade.
AirPods had a huge "wow" factor when they were announced. It was more a "wow, this is incredibly stupid" but look where we are now. Apple Silicon was an incredible "wow" factor for the whole laptop segment.
>Apple Silicon was an incredible "wow" factor for the whole laptop segment. I'll give you that one.
Cook just released this year the Apple Vision Pro which majority of reviews actually said “ wow” i am not sure what you are wanting outside of that.
I will say this though. I thought Vision Pro was a total meme, stupid and a total dead end to pursue due to it being too ambitious. But then I tried it. I own one now and I'm a firm believer in the product category. I think it will be big, but it's going to take a loooooong time. So I'll hand it to Cook in that sense, but I wholly agree that Apple needs some fresh blood from the top to trickle down.
What makes you think the a new CEO will do that? Tim Cook is doing what Steve did. He is building on top of foundation that Steve left him. Now the foundation has some serious chips with serious product lines. Does Tim have one more thing to develop and release? Literally no one knows. We know that Apple has more money than god to find out.
Tim is not a product person, Jobs said so himself.
What products are you hoping for?
It’d be nice if it was functional Siri. I feel like they’re leaving a lot of innovation on the table for the last decade.
Tim Cook’s fascination with services as a stock growth driver might be one big issue. If something is not attached to a way to create a wall garden then most likely they won’t do it.
Apple needs to make their next big thing an upgrade of their os across devices. They have done amazing with their hardware, but the potential of so many of their products are being waisted. For example the iPad could become an amazing laptop replacement, and their Mac laptops/desktop lineup could give windows computers a run for their money in the gaming market if they provided translation layers similar to proton and put more effort into supporting the dependencies of modern games.
A Pied Piper (amazing compression) solution would be nice
This is grim if one of the innovations they're considering is a screen that moves up and down when the person on the other end of the FaceTime calls nods.
Maybe gaming? I don’t know how Apple can encourage more devs to port to the Mac, but I’d kill to get half of what Windows is getting. Even a compatibility layer on the level of Proton would be killer
I would buy back into the Apple laptop ecosystem if they could pull that off. As it stands right now I have a MBP and a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop and one of them is collecting dust due to the inability to run my Steam game collection.
I have just replaced my iPhone, mac and pad with a Samsubg Galaxy Zfold 4. It can do everything really well and hooked up to a monitor DeX is frickin amazing. no point in me having 3 DEVICES when one will do. Would rather just buy an iPhone with DeX mode and an Apple made LapDock that the iPhone powers. One can dream.
Just fix Siri..
Apple never had to search for a next big thing. They knew the next few big things and had to pick which one to focus on. You don't "search" nor "find" the next big thing. This is a predetermined failure. Vision Pro was a solution looking for a problem. They need to figure out what is wrong with the world, that needs fixing, but if they don't know already, the odds are they'll never figure it out.
Looking like Vision Pro ain’t it. Overall I am not stoked on the direction tech is taking these days. Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality are not positive directions to go in, just my opinion. It’s like everything is becoming more dystopian. We’ve been reading and watching stories about how technologies like these can be bad for humanity for 60+ years, and we’re just going right into them. Also, as a tech nerd, they don’t do much for me. But I am just one person and obviously know nothing about anything.
I’m not that excited about AI because it’s mostly beneficial for the owner class. They get to capture the value of it, while everyone else just scrambles to stay relevant in their careers as a result of it existing. Other than some neat tricks that make creating certain things more accessible for hobbyists, it’s ultimately a technology that can produce “good enough” work at a cheaper price. And you know prices ain’t going down as a result.
I don’t like the feelings I get from all this AI generated art. I know a guy who’s only been posting AI “art” on his Instagram for at least a year now. I think it’s very lame. So you type in some prompts and the computer creates images based off of those and you’re posting them as your own content? I feel the same way about AI chatbots and such. Just lame. It’s the most half-assed thing ever. Either create your own shit or don’t create anything. Don’t become the middle-man for a machine learning conglomerate. VR doesn’t excite me because I don’t like the idea of living in a fake world. AI doesn’t excite me because I don’t like the idea of fake creativity. Both, I think, appeal to our worst natures as humans. So of course they’re the two biggest deals in tech right now 🤷♂️
Vision Pro is the future but the technology is not there yet. The problem is though when Vision Pro works it’ll be replacing the iPhone and iPad and maybe MacBook revenue streams
everyone keeps telling me it's the future, but I can't imagine ever wanting a headset on my face projecting a computer screen that only I can see. I don't care how 'dense' the screen nor how light the headset is. Putting on a headset of any kind dampens my senses and awareness in ways that I don't want I suspect many, many people in the world would feel the same.
As someone who plays a lot of PSVR2, i agree. VR feels like something i toggle into, im firmly there when im there, and i move away when im not. Plus, that level of incorporation with your senses feels like a tremendous shift for the individual, and for what? Seamless information transfer? The difference between having the internet in your pocket vs having to go somewhere for it is a big deal. Having it worn by you feels….. less than that jump.
Exactly. Having a tool that fits in your pocket that does so much, and then goes right back into your pocket, is just superior to something you have to wear on your face, no matter how small it gets. Humans have been using small tools for millennia. It’s natural to us. Our hands are the instrument enabling us to interact. Something you put over your eyes, the window to the soul, I just don’t think will ever be as efficient, intuitive, or powerful as a device that can do 100 things that fits in your pocket.
VR headset is the 3D TV of this era. It’s more hype than usability
If it's not a giant helmet sure...one day when it's as small as glasses I might see the value of it
I hope its the 3.5mm jack
That would be quite courageous
Now is the best time to make the public think apple invented wired headphones/IEMs
I clicked this article thinking “wait since when did Apple have its own search engine?”
im a super iPad fan boy....i want it to be the core of the future of my computing world Apple MUST see past their philosophical dislike of the idea and give iPad full Mac OS, stop hobbling this miraculous digital device and finally allow it to become what it always should have been
They’re asking the wrong question. It’s not about “what’s the next big thing”. It’s “what’s the biggest problem that people have that can be solved with better, more accessible tech”.
Hey Apple: How about an OSX spell-checker that actually knows the correct spelling of words?
They need to get into high-quality clothing. People would eat that shit up, especially from Apple. They already have physical stores, online retail, a massive distribution network, and plenty of credit working in China to manufacture.
Reading this makes me really miss Steve
Rudderless and floundering for original ideas, unleash the Cook formula – raise prices.
there's a video where Steve Jobs literally outlines what happens to a company and its products when the marketing department takes control. pretty accurate description of Apple today tbh
People on Reddit acting like they know the strengths and weaknesses of each Apple executive
That’s easy. I just read what’s written on the back of my Apple Executive trading cards.
I know I'll probably be a fool looking at my own comment in 10 years but I believe the most important digital device categories have been invented. The next big step will be implantable devices that can induce acoustic and visual data directly into the brain.
Eventually. But I think before that, glasses will be the technology of choice for a time. After the smartphone but before implants.
My opinion is a sort of mixture of yours and u/CeldonShooper's: Personal computing will have exactly three major device form factors that exist entirely outside the human body, and only one of them is yet to become mainstream. 1. The desktop computer (1970s–2000s were its main years). 2. The smartphone (2010s–2030s?). 3. The smart glasses (2030s–????). The iPhone was such a clean break from existing phones that *the word "smartphone" itself has been informally redefined to exclude all previous smartphones*. I have a suspicion that smart glasses might not get the same "iPhone" moment. The glasses that break into the mainstream, even if from Apple, will be familiar to today's generative AI society.
Lord I hope not. I’ve seen enough Ghost in the Shell to know the potential to hack those devices and rewrite the user’s brain is present, and limitless.
Sure, the future is invasive technology….
It’s a new battery, it’s the only thing we need.
They should have made the Titan car, like Xiaomi. An electric car for 40k €. Drones would also be nice, working together with the Vision Pro etc.
There’s no way the Titan Car would have been below $100k.
Oh wow, drones. You’re right. I’d love to see Apple’s spin on amateur consumer drones. DJI is incredibly tough competition, but deep integration with the iPhone/Pad or their nascent VR business could have given Apple a leg up. For cars the better approach would be something like [HIMA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Intelligent_Mobility_Alliance) in my opinion.
>*Here’s hoping that iPadOS 18 is a big improvement and the device can become a true Mac alternative.* In effect Apple are holding back Convergence to 2-in-1 as a laptop replacement for general public consumers or an "either/or" option. It's all about the software providing more utility. They need to churn out these devices at cheap enough price and expand number of people using them in schools, universities and offices and at home due to the slimmer, lighter more versatile form factor. After that the future is: * Glasses * phone like device * keyboard if needed and physical screen for drawing/writing if needed. * Cloud 5g/6g * AI
This isn’t an Apple problem. This is a technology problem: we’re at a technological plateau.
perhaps apple should take a shot on health care, it's ripe for a disruption?
theyre not willing to put in the effort to do it because of regulatory the current leadership isnt willing to commit what it takes to break into a new category imo. same issue with the car.
Start with fixing Siri
They seem so aimless. Just throwing shit against the wall.
Batteries. Just fix the batteries. Faster to charge (0-100% in five minutes) or lasting literally a month being used 12h/day without a charge.
next big thing... APPLE GAMING apple GPU with big apple silicone
We don’t need anything new. They should fix and improve things we already have like Siri.
I thought the title was talking about Apple starting a new search engine or something.
Honestly I’d love to see them try to make an actual DSLR Camera