The Apple iPad Pro is not the ultimate PC replacement
If you have followed Apple's -- rather uninspiring -- event yesterday you may know that the company announced a new 9.7 inch iPad Pro, a smaller version of the IPad Pro released last year.
During the presentation, Phil Schiller, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, made two statements in regards to PCs.
First, he stated that most new iPad Pro users were using a Windows PC previously and that it was the "ultimate PC replacement", and second, that it was sad that more than 600 million people were using PCs that were over five years old.
Let us take a look at the statements that he made during his presentation.
The ultimate PC replacement
The iPad Pro, just like any Android or Chrome OS tablet, can be a a PC replacement under certain circumstances as it depends largely on what a user uses the machine for.
Web browsing, media consumption, light Office work or mobile games are all supported on tablets, and if that is all that is needed, then it can very well be a replacement.
But ultimate means that it is the non plus ultra replacement, and that is simply not the case. The iPad Pro cannot run Windows programs for one, and if you use your Windows machine to produce something, be it applications, websites, 3D models or videos, you will quickly realize that the machine is not suitable for that or not able to be used in that way at all.
Then there are games which some like to play, and there is a huge difference between games available for iOS and Windows as well. You simply cannot play games like The Division, World of Warcraft or Call of Duty on an iPad, and there is little chance that this will change anytime soon.
If you look at peripherals that are available for Windows PCs and for Apple's iPad, there is only so many that you can connect to an iPad Pro. Multi-monitor setups, external storage (extremely limited), or a computer mouse are not really an option.
Last but not least, Windows PCs give users more freedom in regards to what they can do on the system. They are not limiting users to installing apps from a store that one company has full control over, and users can make modifications to the operating system or programs running on it as well whereas the options to do so on an iOS device are fairly limited.
For desktop systems, it is easy to upgrade specific hardware, say computer memory or the video card, which may extend the lifespan of the device by several years.
Microsoft is heading Apple's way in some regards with Windows Store and Windows 10, but it is not there yet and is criticized for its course already by part of the Windows community.
Basically, the iPad Pro offers only some features that PCs, laptops or desktop systems, offer, and while that makes it a PC replacement, it will never be the "ultimate" PC replacement (that would be another PC).
Sad PC users
For a company that tries to win PC users over, it may not be the best strategy to state that it is sad that 600 million people are still using PCs that are over five years old.
First of, old does not necessarily mean inadequate. There is nothing wrong with using a five year old PC if it allows you to do what you do on your computer. Heck, some even use a good old C-64 or Amiga computer for certain tasks even though those machines have been produced more than 20 years ago.
Considering that Apple revealed all the company's advances in recycling, it should be something that the company values instead of mocks.
There are plenty of reasons why five year old PCs are still being used on top of the obvious one: from lack of money over hardware or software that won't run on newer versions or different operating systems, to upgrading select components of the computer to extend its lifespan.
Apple's obviously interested in selling you new stuff regularly and the advances in mobile technology have really opened the door for that up until now. Better processing and graphics power, new features like NFC or fingerprint readers, better displays, less battery use and a lot more.
On PCs, at least on the desktop, there is little need for upgrades unless you are a gamer or require as much processing power as possible for other applications. Even then, it may be enough to upgrade core components instead of buying a new device.
Now You: What's your take on this?
Martin, I would appreciate that you do not censor this post, as it’s informative writing.
Onur, there is a misleading statement “[…] GIFs are animated images …”. No, obviously you don’t seem to have take much notice of what you were told back in March regarding; Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).
For example, https://www.ghacks.net/2023/03/31/whats-gif-explanation-and-how-to-use-it/#comment-4562919 (if you had read my replies within that thread, you might have learnt something useful). I even mentioned, “GIF intrinsically supports animated images (GIF89a)”.
You linked to said article, [Related: …] within this article, but have somehow failed to take onboard what support you were given by several more knowledgeable people.
If you used AI to help write this article, it has failed miserably.
AI is stupid, and it will not get any better if we really know how this all works. Prove me wrong.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYl1sTIOHI
Martin, [#comment-4569908] is only meant to be in: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/09/how-to-send-gifs-on-iphone-two-different-ways/]. Whereas it appears duplicated in several recent random low-quality non relevant articles.
Obviously it [#comment-4569908] was posted: 9 July 2023. Long before this thread even existed… your database is falling over. Those comments are supposed to have unique ID values. It shouldn’t be possible to duplicate the post ID, if the database had referential integrity.
Don’t tell me!
Ghacks wants the state to step in for STATE-MANDATED associations to save jobs!!!
Bring in the dictatorship!!!
And screw Rreedom of Association – too radical for Ghacks maybe
GateKeeper ?
That’s called “appointing” businesses to do the state’s dirty work!!!!!
But the article says itself that those appointed were not happy – implying they had not choice!!!!!!
@The Dark Lady,
@KeZa,
@Database failure,
@Howard Pearce,
@Howard Allan Pearce,
Note: I replaced the quoted URI scheme: https:// with “>>” and posted.
The current ghacks.net is owned by “Softonic International S.A.” (sold by Martin in October 2019), and due to the fate of M&A, ghacks.net has changed in quality.
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/02/microsoft-is-removing-wordpad-from-windows/#comment-4573130
Many Authors of bloggers and advertisers certified by Softonic have joined the site, and the site is full of articles aimed at advertising and clickbait.
>> ghacks.net/2023/08/31/in-windows-11-the-line-between-legitimate-and-adware-becomes-increasingly-blurred/#comment-4573117
As it stands, except for articles by Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, and Ashwin, they are low quality, unhelpful, and even vicious. It is better not to read those articles.
How to display only articles by a specific author:
Added line to My filters in uBlock Origin: ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/01/windows-11-development-overview-of-the-august-2023-changes/#comment-4573033
By the way, if you use an RSS reader, you can track exactly where your comments are (I’m an iPad user, so I use “Feedly Classic”, but for Windows I prefer the desktop app “RSS Guard”).
RSS Guard: Feed reader which supports RSS/ATOM/JSON and many web-based feed services.
>> github.com/martinrotter/rssguard#readme
We all live in digital surveillance glass houses under scrutiny of evil people because of people like Musk. It’s only fair that he takes his turn.
“Operating systems will be required to let the user choose the browser, virtual assistant and search engine of their choice. Microsoft cannot force users to use Bing or Edge. Apple will have to open up its iOS operating system to allow third-party app stores, aka allow sideloading of apps. Google, on the other hand, will need to provide users with the ability to uninstall preloaded apps (bloatware) from Android devices. Online services will need to allow users to unsubscribe from their platform easily. Gatekeepers need to provide interoperability with third-parties that offer similar services.”
Wonderful ! Let’s hope they’ll comply with that law more than they are doing with the GDPR.
No, they didn’t lmao.
https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1706523877478670542