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.