The iPad is touch-first, the Mac is mouse-and-keyboard centric, and their apps are optimized for their own shape.
Oct 10, 2022| The iPad is touch-first, the Mac is mouse-and-keyboard centric, and their apps are optimized for their own shape.
With multiple Windows and mouse and keyboard interaction, there's no doubt that macOS on the iPad would be a killer -- but not a replacement. The iPad is touch-first, the Mac is mouse-and-keyboard centric, and their apps are optimized for their own shape.
After more than a decade, the iPad is still what Jobs identified as a "Category 3 device" : neither a phone nor a laptop, capable of performing tasks such as browsing the web, viewing pictures and watching videos better than a laptop or smartphone, or it has no reason to exist. Just think, if you pair macOS with today's iPad, can it do these tasks better than iPadOS?
What the iPad Pro lacks, more than a system, is killer software on macOS. If the iPad had software like Xcode and Final Cut Pro to unleash the full power of the iPad's hardware, there would probably be a lot less talk about iPadOS 'underside. Apple's current compromise is between Sidecar, which uses the iPad as the Mac's second display, and Universal Control, which allows tasks to flow freely between the iPad and the Mac.
Perhaps it's too much for iPadOS to handle with one device for a job done by two.
