Apple has launched its new set of toys products for this season. Not bad. Now it has added extra steroids to its iPad, now called iPad Pro. The intention is to gear this product towards the productivity market.
Well job done, Apple! For full functionality you will need a keyboard, which the company will gladly sell you for $169 (yes, around $40 more expensive than Microsoft keyboard for the Surface Pro 3), and will use the same type of connectors around the device so it clicks when you plug it. Funny, isn’t it? It looks very much like a Surface. The same tablet that was maligned in certain tech press due to its “clunkiness” and “excessiveness”.
iPad Pro’s main differentiator (!?) is the stylus, or well, pencil. It is a stylus, people. And Apple will sell it to you, dear consumer, at $69. Yes. Unlike other tablets (Surface, maybe?) it will not be free.
Let’s be clear here: Productivity is about power to run real software, so companies save time and effort, weather in management, manufacturing, communication, or sales. A device that runs a mobile operating system will never be at the same level compared to a device with a full OS. Such is the problem of Adobe suites, for example. They do have versions for mobile devices, but never achieve the same capacities of software running on a desktop/laptop OS (you name it, OSX, Win8/10, Linux…) Technology is not there yet, and it does not seem there will be a solution to that in the near future.
By the way, Windows Central did a quick comparison between both devices. Interesting read.
That is why Microsoft was fucking right: Kill the tablet toys (and that goes for Android as well), fuse the laptop with the tablet, put a powerhorse OS, and create a new segment with great pricing and the benefits of a real computer. I would not be surprised if the MacBook Air turns into a mix of iPad Pro and the MacBook Air. Fanless processors and slimmer parts might do the trick. The time of the tablet is finished.
This video sums up what I think about this Apple-centered mentality that I personally despise.
MOZZYLAND 
I think Apple fans do not have the unbiased vision anymore to analyze what is bad or not if there is an Apple product involved in the comparison. It is very obvious to me that Apple has found its core in many people that prefer simplicity, but sometimes (and not in all devices) sacrificing productivity and connectivity with other products. In the other hand, one of the strongest merits of Apple is creating an ecosystem (but let’s not forget, closed ecosystem) where everything works in (almost) perfect harmony, given of course that an Apple device connects to another Apple device.
Apple in some way has brainwashed people. No other solution is handy except an Apple product. The iPhone is perfect for many people, despite being unable to expandability and connectivity to some non-Apple products. An iPad is just gorgeous for all of them, but the device in question fails at running full productivity software because there are no apps for that ecosystem with those characteristics (even Microsoft is filling some of those holes by adding features to Office 365 for iOS, but this is clearly not enough). The most solid products are the Macbooks, but those laptops don’t always work in perfect balance in a world that is full of Windows and PC computers; they are also expensive thus, not the best solution for companies that wants the most out of their money (return on investment).
Conversely, we all know Microsoft. Their products are nowhere near perfection, but they fill the hole that Apple leaves open. The Surface Pro has been brutally criticized for selling “a tablet that can replace your laptop” with an optional keyboard cover, but suddenly Apple “hits the target” by selling their keyboard for the iPad Pro at a higher price. I even heard a comment in one of those “specialized” technology blogs that states clearly that “the iPad Pro might not need the keyboard to be fully productive, because their on-screen keyboard was enough for a lot of productivity task” (???) Really? That is not being objective. That is misleading people that will but the iPad Pro, then will start using their laptop (PC or Mac) for real productivity work, and will use the iPad Pro as a toy with some productivity extensions.
Don’t take me bad. Apple has merits. But then practically criminalizing Microsoft and, at the same time, rewarding Apple for significant flaws, is the same situation as those companies lived more than ten years ago, but the roles were reverted back then.