In November 2017, Apple issued one of the most memorable ads in its recent history. A girl was spending all day with an iPad Pro. With it he did his homework, took photos, chatted with his friends and drew while lying on the grass. Finally, a neighbor asked him what he was doing with the computer. He answered another question: “What is a computer?”
The ad was not an ad concept but A business thesis. In an interview two years ago, Dr telegraphTim Cook wondered why anyone would continue to buy a PC. Apple was convinced that the computer of the future would be a screen that could be touched, and that future was called the iPad. Yesterday Apple presented its first MacBook Pro with a touch screen in Los Angeles.
Almost everything written since then revolves around Steve Jobs keynote speech In 2010 he claimed that a touch laptop was, ergonomically, a mistake. This is the most interesting conflict, but it is not the most important.
The conflict that really counts is not with the job. It has been with Apple since last ten years. Throughout this time, the company has maintained that it is not going to merge the iPad and Mac because they fulfill different functions.
- The Mac was a keyboard and trackpad computer.
- The iPad is a computer you can touch.
And Apple’s bet was that, over time, the second would eat the first.
It didn’t happen. In fact, Apple has addressed the question of whether the iPad can replace the laptop in the most unexpected way: by making the laptop the only thing the iPad is.
Each major innovation of the iPad Pro gave it something the Mac already had: the keyboard in 2015, the cursor in 2020, an M series chip in 2021, Windows in 2022, and the menu bar in 2025. Convergence has only moved in one direction. The iPad had two exclusives left, the touch screen and the Apple Pencil. Now he keeps only the second. The Pencil needs a horizontal surface to rest your hand on, and that’s probably why Apple didn’t bring it to the Mac.
iPhone Duo below: 7.6-inch display, multitasking inherited from iPadOS and compatible with Pencil. At 2,339 euros it doesn’t threaten the entry-level iPad, but an iPhone 18 Pro Max (1,619 euros) and the new iPad mini (749) add up to 2,368. For those who buy both, the foldable one costs the same and only takes up one pocket.
None of this endangers the iPad. More than half of its customers between January and March were new. What you lose is commitment. If you want a computer you can touch, Apple already has one, and it’s also called the Mac.
The person who saw the ad when he was twelve is now twenty-one. This is the generation that Josvik refers to. The iPad taught him to touch, but now that he’s of working age, Apple isn’t giving him a better iPad, but a Mac that allows himself to be touched. The ad girl has already given her answer. And it’s not the iPad.
Featured Image | apple
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