
The Tragic iPad - i_am_not_elon
https://stratechery.com/2020/the-ipad-at-10-the-ipad-disappointment-ipads-missing-ecosystem/
======
threatofrain
Prior relevant discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22166421](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22166421)

------
alwaysanagenda
Generally speaking, there is a lack of vision at Apple that has slowly
deflated since Jobs has passed.

Jony Ive's departure to start a private design firm is confirmation of such,
despite Apple being his 'primary' client.

One has to wonder what Apple would be like if Forstall was still there. People
should remember it was his team that won the internal contest for the iPhone
interface. And it was Jobs' willingness to create internal competition that
brought the best out in his employees and the company.

Tim's runs Apple with the same kind of unchallenged vision that allowed George
Lucas to produce Episodes 1, 2 and 3 without any kind of creative push-back.

It will stagnate until new hands take control.

It's a cycle. All life is.

How soon Apple's cycle turns upwards towards innovation remains to be seen.

~~~
Pumpmaster6000
The market disagrees

~~~
robenkleene
This conversation is about the iPad, as of yesterday iPad sales are down 11%
YOY
[https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/01/28/aapl-q1-2020](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/01/28/aapl-q1-2020)

------
diebeforei485
This "consumption device" meme might reflect how a lot of people use it, but
it's the opposite of my use case.

I find iPad to be the best device to use for train/coach commutes (and
flights), or occasionally if I'm a long (15+ min) Uber or taxi ride.

I can do code reviews, emails, bug tracking, calendar-related things like
setting up meetings, as well as reading debug logs (on our log search page,
but can also SSH into specific machines).

I don't use the fancy multitasking split-screen features either (just copy and
paste).

In fact, for many of these tasks, I find it smoother to use an iPad than a
computer. YMMV but a lot of people use iPad for specific workflows.

------
jshaqaw
The blame here is squarely on Apple. After Jobs they treated the iPad as if it
is just a big iPhone. It is a device of incredible potential but developers
can't make an economic model work with iPad centric software which really
takes maximum advantage of it. Apple should have developed killer apps in-
house specifically for the iPad to seed the ecosystem but they didn't.

It is crazy that ten years after the iPad came out the only real way to keep
large numbers of documents in sync and organized between it and my computer is
Evernote.

------
puranjay
iPad will always remain stuck between being a consumption and a creation
device (a "creasumption" device?). Anyone who seriously attempts creation on
the iPad will eventually want to move to more specialized hardware.

Garageband on iPad is nice, but if you're serious about music, you will want
Logic Pro. Doodling on the iPad is great too, but if you're a serious
designer, you'll buy a Wacom tablet and Illustrator.

Which is perfect. Creators need their gateway drug, and the iPad fills that
role perfectly

~~~
musicale
> Garageband on iPad is nice, but if you're serious about music, you will want
> Logic Pro

Nothing against Logic (or Garageband, which is great) but there are so many
incredible instruments/synths/AUs available for iOS, as well as a number of
highly capable DAWs, including Auria Pro, Cubasis, FL Studio Mobile, Korg
Gadget, Beatmaker, etc.. Several of them also work well with respective
desktop versions. Ideally I'd say you want an iPad _and_ a Mac running Logic
(or your favorite desktop DAW) but a high quality all-iOS workflow has been
doable since early versions of NanoStudio, BeatMaker, Multitrack DAW, and
AudioBus. Multitouch is also nice for mixing (and you can use an iPad to
control Logic.)

> Doodling on the iPad is great too, but if you're a serious designer, you'll
> buy a Wacom tablet and Illustrator.

For vector graphics, Affinity Designer goes a long way. For digital painting
and drawing the combination of iPad Pro + Apple Pencil + Procreate is hard to
beat.

~~~
puranjay
At present, the iPad is simply not powerful enough for pro quality music
production. Serious, ready-to-release songs usually have 40-50+ tracks. That
really stretches powerful processors on desktops.

I produce some music as a hobby and while I've seen some iPads being used
during live gigs as a second screen, the studio is strictly Macbook
Pro/desktop territory.

------
cecja
It’s a perfectly capable drawing device with sidecar even more. A lot of
professional artists switched from Wacom to the iPad and now with sidecar they
forced Wacom to make a device for just 499$ which is about 500 cheaper than
before. There is a market and a use case it is just not yours.

------
notlukesky
The iPad is there for mass consumption as primarily a consumption tool (pun
intended). Power users following the aptly named power law already know the
tricks to use it as a production tool like split screen and multitasking
etc... the masses will not invest the time to learn those tricks because they
don’t need it and their willful ignorance is bliss.

The good thing that the article points out is that Apple’s historical business
model (4.99 price cap) limited productivity tools by capping the prices that
could be charged through the app store. Fair point there. Apple can still
breathe life going forward for developers by rebooting the developer
ecosystem. 10 years on the tablet has just arrived for productivity. That is
still a fraction of iPad consumers. Prosumers are a minority and the only ones
demanding landscape view and split screen apps.

I work for an IAM consultancy and the password manager we recommend to our
clients and that I use is SAASPASS and one of the reasons is that it supports
multitasking, landscape view and split screen. Split screen is great for
Authenticator codes and password management. But the masses probably don’t
care at all for these features. Although AutoFill has solved some of these UX
issues with most apps and websites.

If anyone is interested in an iPad friendly Authenticator and Password Manager
see here:

[https://saaspass.com/](https://saaspass.com/)

~~~
SahAssar
You seem to mention/link saaspass (almost always in all uppercase) quite a lot
(while claiming you don't work for them), and have been accused of working for
them in the past (5 months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20746919](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20746919)
).

Any response?

