iPad Was Announced 10 Years Ago Today. Can it be your Primary Computing Device?
Jan 27th, 2010 Steve Jobs took the stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco to announce iPad to the world. It was marketed as the “Magical & Revolutionary Device at an Unbelievable Price”. You can read Apple's official press release from 2010 on their website here:
In this ever changing mobile first world, is iPad powerful enough to be your primary computing device?
My take on it is a resounding yes! I’m a huge fan of iPad. I actually made it a point to write, edit, and publish this post strictly from my iPad Pro. With the launch of iPadOS, the latest software update unlocked some essential features for iPad that really allows it to be a primary computing device. Out of all of the features which increase productivity, the one’s that I enjoy most about iPadOS is the ability to use the same app in multiple windows, swipe between slide over apps, and the updated app switcher which shows you all of the windows that you have open for a specific app in that workspace.
Now back to the discussion of is it a “computer”? Well a computer by definition is “an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.” ✔️ — iPad covers that. The fact is we need to think outside the box with how we complete daily tasks. The iPad allows us to be untethered from a conventional desktop computer and is the most portable productivity device that I’ve owned to date. I use a LTE enabled iPad which gives me connectivity to the internet at all times. With so many apps being web based and dependent on connectivity, this does something that most laptops are unable to do which is keep me connected on the go in a mobile and agile way.
We need to remember the Mac was built with the idea that consumers interact with it by a point and click of a mouse. The iPad was built by knocking down that theory and allowing the consumer to touch the device. This is quite a personal experience in the world of computing. The idea that we can hold the internet in our hands still to this moment gets me excited about using tech in our daily lives. The iPad has further evolved in the way of multitouch. This enables us to use multiple fingers to swipe between, change, and close apps. It also enables us to cut, paste, and select text in a modern and fluid way. With multi-touch being a main feature of iPad, this enables the iPad to be a productivity powerhouse and get real work done.
Apple Pencil also adds an entire new layer to productivity on iPad. One of my favorite features is the ability to drag Apple Pencil from bottom left or right of any active window to take a screenshot. You can then easily markup and annotate that screenshot, and then send that off to someone or save it locally for a later time. It’s a feature like this that reenforces the deep hardware and software integration that Apple has planned for and rolled out within this product. This deep integration that appears in one way or another in every Apple product is something that has resonated with me for years.
Now there is always the argument saying the iPad is underpowered, and not powerful enough to actually use as a computer? Well I know of many people who only use iPad to get their work done and run their business. In my opinion these people are power users who string together workflow automations to get their workaccomplished. They are able to complete tasks in a much more seamless way than they can on a traditional desktop or laptop computer. Look at some top Youtubers who do 100% of their video content curation using the LumaFusion App on iPad. We are talking about editing, rendering, and tuning 4K footage that the iPad Pro is able to breeze through with ease. Who would have ever thought we’d be editing high resolution video on a computing device that doesn’t even have a built-in fan for heat management. Wild, right?!
I ran this test with the GeekBench app on my 11” 2018 iPad Pro, and the results are astounding. These numbers can rival the 2018 MacBook Pro with an i7 processor. Apple has said at a prior keynote announcement that the iPad Pro processor was faster than “92% of portable PCs”. I really think Apple's goal here is to enable us to start thinking differently about what a computer really is, and focus on the work we need to get done. When that change happens, the idea of what can get accomplished on iPad is endless.
Computing on iPad is here to stay. As iPad adoption continues to grow year after year, I predict we will see these devices in more business, enterprise, and educational settings. Not only are they easy to manage, but they have a relatively good life expectancy in the world of iOS software updates. I’ve owned an iPad since the first one launched in 2010, and I can’t wait to see what the future of iPad and iPadOS holds.
Be well,
-Joe
