“Just a Touch MacBook”

The iPad vs. MacBook debate boils down to iOS vs. macOS

So, I wrote this post over a week ago. But decided not to publish amidst the world falling apart with the COVID-19 situation. That’s still very much happening, of course. But the world must also go on. And Apple clearly agrees as they launched the rumored new iPad with trackpad this morning. So, here you go.

We’re now ten years removed from the unveiling of the iPad. You remember, “just a big iPhone”. Sales absolutely exploded out of the gate, to the point where merely being an incredible business now disappoints people. It has been an awesomely weird decade. And it seems like it’s about to get weirder.

There’s a lot of rumor mill smoke and code-leak fire out there right now. It seems pretty clear that we’re on the verge of a new iPad — possibly multiple iPads — with a key new component: a keyboard with a trackpad. If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve probably used one of these devices before. It’s called a laptop.

I kid, but I also don’t. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. I think there’s something interesting going on here.

Again, since day one we’ve joked about the iPad being “just a big iPhone”. But what is now clear is that Apple is thinking about the iPad much more akin to a MacBook — with one very key difference: it runs iOS.

Those of us who are iPad lovers — I’m firmly in this camp — long ago realized that the iPad (at least the larger models, the iPad mini is something wonderfully different still) was more in the vein of laptop rather than a big smartphone. I’ve carried an iPad around on a nearly daily basis for much of the past decade. Overall, I use it more than my MacBook. And for many things — things I used to do with a laptop — I use it exclusively.

Yes, that’s because I use it with a keyboard. I currently use Apple’s, but I’ve tried and used many over the years. Again, basically from the get go. And this trackpad — if that’s what it is — will push me farther into that camp. Of the remaining 10% of things I get frustrated with when it comes to using the iPad in this way, 90% of those are related to the fact that much of the web still wants you to have a mouse/trackpad in some capacity. Given that Apple solved most of the “mobile” Safari issues for iPad with iOS 13 (iPad OS), such a pointer device will get us very, very close to laptop computing perfection.

Now, is that what we want? I’m honestly not sure. I see it both ways. On one hand, it’s sort of a shame that the “if you see a stylus, they blew it” iPad not only now has a stylus, but it’s going to have a keyboard and trackpad. That is to say, this is seemingly not the device Steve Jobs set out to build. Again, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means that ideas have evolved. And who knows, maybe Jobs was shortsighted in this regard. It’s possible! Likely, even.

Still, there’s a romantic notion of being “just a big iPhone” in some ways. You know, Jobs sitting in that leather chair during the demo, just flipping through the web with his finger. A truly touchable tablet. The web at your fingertips, quite literally. Simplified computing.

Yet we still haven’t quite lived up to the promise of third-party touch-based applications for this device. There are many fantastic ones. But the business side of the equation never took hold as it did for Mac-based software, for example. There are many reasons for this, and I largely fault Apple for them. But that’s a different story.

The point now isn’t whether the iPad should be changing to be more laptop-like, it’s that it is changing in that way. And again, I think that’s fine. Good in some ways, less good in others. It is what it is. And what it is is a convergence of the iPad with the MacBook not because the MacBook gained a touchscreen, but because the iPad gained a point-and-clicker.

At the same time, the MacBook is morphing to be closer to the iPad. While the touchscreen never happened, a “simple” way to port iPad apps to the Mac did. And now, again, if rumors are to be believed, the CPU that powers the iPad will soon make the jump to the Mac.

So what we’ll be left with is an iPad powered by an ARM chip, with a keyboard and trackpad, that runs iOS apps and can run the full web — meets a MacBook powered by an ARM chip, with a keyboard and trackpad, that can run the full web and iOS apps.¹

One will be top-heavy (the iPad), the other bottom-heavy (the MacBook). The iPad will probably be a bit lighter (but with the keyboard/trackpad maybe not!). The MacBook may be a bit more powerful (but maybe not!). The MacBook will have an OS that is more conducive to “power users”, specifically for coding — but there’s no reason that shouldn’t change as well over time with keyboard and trackpad firmly in place.

The main difference will be that on one you’ll be able to touch the screen, while on the other you probably shouldn’t, lest you want a grubby screen.

That is to say, the main difference will be that one is iOS-based, and one is macOS-based. And the real difference there is that one is touch-first and one is trackpad-first. But this is a pretty blurry line!

Again, I think that’s fine. And in some ways, it’s great that Apple has left the choice up to users, not worrying about cannibalization. But the choice is about to be less clear than it has ever been.

So much for “just a big iPhone”. More like “just a touch MacBook”.

¹ And yes, macOS apps. But the line between those and iOS apps will likely blur over time too, assuming Catalyst gets better and bigger.