Jean-Louis Gassée again hits the right note in his piece on the iPad Pro: Wrong Questions | Monday Note. Tim Cook shouldn’t go around saying it will replace the laptop. It might for him, but the laptop/PC has evolved to be used in myriad ways, not all of which are best suited to a big screen and unwieldy, optional keyboard.
Why not say that the iPad Pro will helpfully replace a laptop for 60%, or 25% of conventional personal computer users? In keeping with Steve Jobs’ Far Better At Some Key Things formula, why not say that the iPad Pro is a great laptop replacement for graphic designers, architects, mechanical engineers, musicians, videographers…and that the audience will grow even larger as new and updated apps take advantage of the iPad Pro’s screen size, speed, and very likable Pencil.
And it’s not just that. Taking up his and others’ theme that at each stage of hardware evolution we’ve lacked the imagination to realise what these devices might best be used for, I imagine the big screen and power of the iPad Pro will yield uses that we so far have not considered.
As with wearables, these devices are as much about creating (this is something I’ve never been able to do before) or extending new markets (I could do this before, but it wasn’t much fun) as anything else. I’m not about to replace my laptop with an iPad Pro, but I could see a lot of things I would love to do with it — music editing, photo editing and organising, and maybe a bit of doodling. As in Horace Dediu’s video The new iPad is like nothing we’ve ever seen before there’s lots of great visualization possibilities too.
Is it a work tool? Could be, for some industries. It’s not a very mobile beast.
The question is: while developers see enough reward in supporting it with apps?