this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
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What’s the appeal of an iPad running OSX over a Mac?
It would be super useful.
When you want to draw something you go to tablet mode and use the pencil. - When the drawing you made needs some editing that iPad software can't do then you switch to mac os mode and finalize the drawing.
Do some programming in mac mode because programming on ipad is extremely limited. - Then when you're done coding you switch to tablet mode and relax with some touch based jigsaw puzzle games.
When you have to use the windows-only programs that work mandates you have to use then you go to mac mode with attached keyboard and run it through parallels. - Then that evening you switch to tablet mode and chill in bed reading a comic book.
Etc etc etc.
All the things that are better done on a mac, and all the things that are better done on an iPad, they all have no reason for existing on separate hardware
The reason is software. Writing good quality software that works on both touch screen and mouse+keyboard is expensive, time-consuming, and tricky to get right. Not only do you need to write apps that work in both mediums, but then you have to write the bridge that transitions between the two modes. Do it wrong and you get Windows 8.
So why bother? Microsoft just kinda allowed touchscreens in laptops, but Windows is still very much a mouse+keyboard-first OS, and touch comes 2nd. For Apple so far, it’s been cheaper (and more profitable) to sell separate devices, write separate apps, and use Continuity/iCloud/Handoff/AirDrop to transfer between devices.
It doesn't have to have software that runs in both. All it needs is a toggle to switch between ipad os mode, and mac os mode. That's literally all it needs. In ipad mode it's just ipad os. In mac mode its just mac os. Mac mode would require a hardware keyboard and pointer device, not touch screen.
Flexibility. And I wonder if remote work has altered that balance lately too. Many I suspect now have chiefly desktop computers, except they're actually laptops plugged into screens. Because there are still some occasions in which you want to be able to take a working computer somewhere else.
But a laptop starts to look like a strangely optimised device for this. Too small to be a powerful desktop and sometimes (if you've gotten a beefy one) too big to be comfortably portable. However, a nice desktop machine coupled with a very portable tablet that can, in those few times its necessary, be a productive enough work machine, but also just be the nice portable media machine wherever you want, seems like an ideal pairing for many now. That the ipad absolutely cannot do some things you'd maybe, even just once a decade, need to do on the fly is a show stopper for this pairing.
And so many probably have a laptop used as a desktop most of the time and an ipad used as a kindle most of the time.
There is nothing. People just like to complain about the App Store.