Enough of Trying to Make MacBooks Please iPad User
One of my biggest problems with tech writers is that many of them don’t seem to live in the real world. When it comes to the iPad, many of them are still talking about how the iPad needs to be able to be able to run XCode, better multi-tasking, or more powerful automation before it can be considered a primary computer. What world do they live in? Because in corporate America, most people do one thing at a time, and they do an awful lot of that one thing. Furthermore, we barely stress even an iPad processor writing all those e-mails.
I’m not saying that the iPad doesn’t deserve some criticism. It’s just that people aren’t criticizing the right things. The iPad Pro hasn’t arrived yet for most people to use as their primary work machine. And there are two big things that it really needs to make that possible. Only most people seem oblivious to what they are. The iPad doesn’t need a permanently attached keyboard or macOS, two items that were featured in the “MacPad” concept video.
I’m not a writer. I’m a corporate accountant who uses his iPad on the job on a daily basis. So I can tell you first-hand what at least one enterprise user dreams about the most when it comes to the iPad. That would be external monitor support and cursor control. It’s all about the interfaces, stupid.
When I went to see the movie The Circle, I got the most excited when I saw the depiction of how future office workers would interact with their tech. I kept thinking “That’s it! That’s what I want!” In the fictional workplace, which was a composite of Facebook, Google, and Apple, everyone was issued a tablet that they could carry around with them wherever they went. When away from their desk they could jot notes into their tablet at impromptu meetings just like a paper notebook. But when they went back to their desk, they docked their tablet and used multiple 27” monitors. That’s my dream.
We’re not there yet. The closest from a hardware perspective may be Microsoft with its Surface Pro. But the Surface Pro has two big problems. One, most corporate users carry around iPhones, and they like the symbiotic relationship between the iPad and the iPhone. Two, software app availability on the iPad is way better.
You can’t really add monitor support to the iPad without taking care of the resulting deficit of cursor manipulation. If you dock your iPad, you need a way to manipulate the on-screen interface. This means the iPad needs mouse or TouchPad support. I want the freedom to roam the halls of my office and go back to my desk, dock my iPad, and grab my mouse and see my stuff on a big monitor.
Most corporate PC users carry around iPhones, so iOS is familiar. Converting from a PC to an iPad is like jumping into warm water since the interface is familiar and all the apps are mostly the same. Jumping from a PC to the Mac is a jarring experience where even simple things like taking a screen shot or navigating the menu is completely alien. The iPad has all the great iPhone apps and doesn’t involve relearning a whole new operating system.
I’m growing tired of all the efforts to try to turn the 12” MacBook into an iPad replacement. Keyboards that fold completely to the back suck and add unnecessary weight. I don’t want a permanently attached keyboard, glass or otherwise, and I don’t want to run macOS. If a permanently attached keyboard and a desktop operating system were so important then the iPad wouldn’t outsell the MacBook by a factor of at least 10 to 1. Not only would it be easier for Apple to add monitor support and cursor control to the iPad Pro, it would be much more of a crowd-pleasing proposition.
I’m not a writer. I’m a corporate accountant who uses his iPad on the job on a daily basis. So I can tell you first-hand what at least one enterprise user dreams about the most when it comes to the iPad. That would be external monitor support and cursor control. It’s all about the interfaces, stupid.
When I went to see the movie The Circle, I got the most excited when I saw the depiction of how future office workers would interact with their tech. I kept thinking “That’s it! That’s what I want!” In the fictional workplace, which was a composite of Facebook, Google, and Apple, everyone was issued a tablet that they could carry around with them wherever they went. When away from their desk they could jot notes into their tablet at impromptu meetings just like a paper notebook. But when they went back to their desk, they docked their tablet and used multiple 27” monitors. That’s my dream.
We’re not there yet. The closest from a hardware perspective may be Microsoft with its Surface Pro. But the Surface Pro has two big problems. One, most corporate users carry around iPhones, and they like the symbiotic relationship between the iPad and the iPhone. Two, software app availability on the iPad is way better.
You can’t really add monitor support to the iPad without taking care of the resulting deficit of cursor manipulation. If you dock your iPad, you need a way to manipulate the on-screen interface. This means the iPad needs mouse or TouchPad support. I want the freedom to roam the halls of my office and go back to my desk, dock my iPad, and grab my mouse and see my stuff on a big monitor.
Most corporate PC users carry around iPhones, so iOS is familiar. Converting from a PC to an iPad is like jumping into warm water since the interface is familiar and all the apps are mostly the same. Jumping from a PC to the Mac is a jarring experience where even simple things like taking a screen shot or navigating the menu is completely alien. The iPad has all the great iPhone apps and doesn’t involve relearning a whole new operating system.
I’m growing tired of all the efforts to try to turn the 12” MacBook into an iPad replacement. Keyboards that fold completely to the back suck and add unnecessary weight. I don’t want a permanently attached keyboard, glass or otherwise, and I don’t want to run macOS. If a permanently attached keyboard and a desktop operating system were so important then the iPad wouldn’t outsell the MacBook by a factor of at least 10 to 1. Not only would it be easier for Apple to add monitor support and cursor control to the iPad Pro, it would be much more of a crowd-pleasing proposition.
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