Apple, keep your iPad Pro and give us retina MacBook Air
Back in 2012, Tim Cook was asked to comment on the trend of hybrid devices - tablets that will attach to a keyboard - and whether Apple was planning to join the bandwagon with the new iPad. Cook, in the typical Apple style, mocked the trend of the hybrid devices. "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but you know those things are not going to be probably pleasing to the user," he said.
Last night when Apple announced the iPad Pro, the company converged a toaster and a refrigerator. Of course, Apple will say this is different. The iPad Pro is unlike any other hybrid tablet with a keyboard cover, Apple officials will say. But the truth is that with the Apple iPad losing the steam in the last two months, the iPad Pro is a product that Apple has been forced to make. And just like most other products that the company is forced to make, the iPad Pro too looks a little pointless.
Instead of the iPad Pro, I wish Apple had launched a MacBook Air with retina display. That would have been really sensational. Allow me to explain.
The iPad Pro is Apple's attempt to create a tablet that professionals can use. Unfortunately, the last five years of tablets have taught us that productivity and tablets don't go well together. Tablet, including the iPad, is good for watching movies or playing games. But when you need to go through the monthly sales report of your company and edit it, a laptop or a desktop computer works best. But with the iPad Pro, Apple is claiming that professionals will be able to use a tablet just the way they use a laptop.
Unfortunately, that is not going to happen, mostly for three reasons. One, iPad Pro is too big. It is humongous. A 13-inch laptop with a clamshell design is portable. But the iPad Pro, with its extremely flat 12.9-inch screen, is not going to be all that portable. When you carry it in your hands, it is not only awkward but also going to be slippery and uncomfortable to hold.
The other problem with the iPad Pro is the operating system. iOS 9, even with enhanced productivity-related features, is not the OS X or Windows. It just doesn't support the kind of seamless workflow that computer operating systems do, making it difficult to create and work with files on it.
And finally, the third problem with the iPad Pro is that laptops are simply better at the kind of stuff that pros deal with.
This brings us to the MacBook Air. In the old times, laptops used to be bulky and awkward to use. But with MacBook Air, Apple changed the rules of the game. The MacBook Air is an incredible machine. It is fast, light, portable, functional, gorgeous, sturdy and very handy. It is one device that is always in my backpack because it is so damn good. It is nearly perfect.
The only thing that holds a MacBook Air is its screen. Unlike other Macs, the Air still uses relatively lower-quality screen. Compared to the screen on the iPad Air, or the iPad Pro, the screen of the MacBook Air is dull and shows washed out colours.
For almost two years now, MacBook Air users are asking Apple to release this machine with retina display. But earlier Apple launched MacBook, an entirely different kind of beast with the retina display and now it has launched the iPad Pro. But it hasn't given the MacBook Air the makeover the laptop deserves.
The story of iPad and MacBook Air is an interesting one. In the last two years, even as the sale of iPad has tumbled, the MacBook Air has seen a surge in popularity. And considering what we know about the iPad Pro, it doesn't look like that this is going to change. The MacBook Air is just too good at what it does while the iPad Pro looks just like a pretender. I so badly wish that Apple had launched a MacBook Air with retina display last night instead of this monstrosity called the iPad Pro.