Wednesday, April 21, 2021
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Apple’s iPad Pros are just as powerful as the MacBook Air. That can be a problem.
Apple (AAPL) has positioned the iPad Pro as a computer replacement since its launch in 2015, when CEO Tim Cook said the iPads would make notebooks or desktops obsolete for “many, many people.”
And the latest models, which debuted Tuesday, have apparently done just that – but the problem for Apple is they are replacing its own MacBook Air. In an ideal world, Apple would want consumers to buy an iPad in addition to their laptop, not instead of the MacBook.
The catalyst for iPad’s new position as a competitor to MacBook Air? Apple’s new M1 chip. Until last year, Apple used pumped-up versions of the chips from its iPhones in its iPad Pros. That changed with Tuesday’s announcements, when Apple said the latest Pros will have the exact same M1 chip found in the MacBook Air. That, coupled with the fact that Apple is working to ensure that iOS and iPadOS apps can run on MacOS, means that the gap between the iPad Pro and MacBook Air is rapidly closing.
There are some differences between the two products to be sure, such as the fact that the iPad Pro cannot run all macOS apps. “The positioning of the iPad and Mac is a bit different right now,” Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, told Yahoo Finance. “But I don’t know how it will go in the future, especially if I use the same CPUs [central processing units]. “
Your next laptop could be an iPad
Apple’s new iPads can become game-changers for a small reason: they’re packed with M1 chips, the tech giant’s replacement for the Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD) processors that have been in Mac products for years. used. Apple produced its own ARM-based M1 processors, he says, because Intel’s chips just couldn’t handle the kind of performance and design changes its devices needed.
The first M1 device I tried, the MacBook Pro blew me away in terms of power and battery life, a rarity for a first-generation device. But unlike Apple’s beautiful new iMacs, which were built around the M1, the MacBook Pro didn’t change much on the outside. It was almost as if Apple were using it as a test bed for the new processor.
“For the industry as a whole, [Apple is] say, ‘Hey, we’re moving forward aggressively on custom silicon. This is our way of differentiating us, ”Bob O’Donnell, president and chief analyst at TECHnalysis Research, told Yahoo Finance. “And that’s a serious gauntlet they’ve thrown down and I think it’s going to be a big challenge for other suppliers to compete with them.”
Of course, the iPad Pro hasn’t gone through any external design changes either, but it’s not like Apple could make the product thinner than it already is.
With the M1, the iPad Pro gets the same 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU and 16-core neural engine as the MacBook Air. Like the Air, the iPad Pro gets up to 2 TB of storage space. It also gets a USB-C Thunderbolt port that allows you to connect the tablet to a secondary monitor with resolutions up to 6K and transfer data at much faster speeds than standard USB-C connections. There’s also WiFi 6 for improved connectivity, and, unlike the MacBook Air, the iPad Pro gets an optional built-in 5G.
Oh, and did I mention the iPad Pros also get wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle cameras? These tablets are clearly intended to transcend even the capabilities of the MacBook Air.
“Over the past two years, iPad Pro has slowly gained share of MacBook Air,” Gene Munster of Loup Ventures told Yahoo Finance. “We expect that trend to continue with the latest iPad Pro changes. Ultimately, it is slightly more expensive than the Air and more versatile. “
Yes, there are a few more important differences between the iPad Pro and MacBook Air. Both the 11-inch model and the 12.9-inch model of the Pro require separate keyboards and mice to function like real laptops. And with the 11-inch iPad Pro starting at $ 799 and a Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse for $ 159 and $ 79 respectively, the total price to turn the 11-inch model into a full laptop is $ 1037.
The 12.9-inch model, meanwhile, starts at $ 1099, while the Magic Keyboard with built-in trackpad costs $ 349, bringing the price to $ 1448. That’s a lot more than the $ 999 a MacBook Air will cost you.
But the Pros have features that the MacBook Air doesn’t, including touch screens that you can write and draw on, and new FaceTime cameras that track you as you move during video calls.
Then there is the new Liquid Retina XDR display of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. With 10,000 mini LEDs, far more than the previous generation iPad Pro’s 72 full-size LEDs and 2,500 dimming zones, the 12.9-inch Pro’s screen is the kind of screen you’d find on a high-end TV. Those features alone are worth the price difference between the iPad Pro and MacBook Air.
In addition, the iPad Pro can be used as more than a laptop. With no keyboard or mouse, it’s still an incredibly capable tablet that you can use while lying in bed or sitting on the couch.
There is a roadblock in the way
An important factor ensures that the iPad Pro and MacBook Air are not direct competitors: Apple’s macOS. The operating system that powers Apple’s Mac line of laptops and desktops doesn’t run on iOS or iPadOS, so while you can run iPadOS and iOS apps on Apple’s Mac, you can’t run MacOS apps on the iPad Pro.
That could change, however, as the new iPad Pros run on the same chips as the current generation of MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, Mac minis, and now iMacs. In other words, it wouldn’t be a big leap for Apple to run macOS on an iPad Pro.
Even if Apple doesn’t put MacOS apps on iPad Pro, most of the programs people use, such as Slack, Microsoft Office, Google Drive apps, Spotify, and others, are already available on iPadOS. The M1 chip simply improves the overall performance.
Of course, it befits Apple to keep its product lines separate. The company makes more money selling both the Mac and iPad than either product segment alone. For example, in the first quarter of 2021, Apple sold $ 8.6 billion in Macs and $ 8.4 billion in iPads.
“They don’t want to combine Mac and iPad to sell just one device,” Kitagawa said. “Because you lose the opportunity to sell hardware.”
And that would hurt Apple’s profits.