Because it is a locked down supercomputer that could do a lot of things, if it wasn't artificially dumbed down. I completely understand why some people want to undumb it. It is light, powerful and more robust and portable than any notebook.
The iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard weights more then the MacBook Air [1]. I want to say I once read it was thicker as well. It's also just as much money, if not more.
The benefit of the iPad is the touch screen, that's it. The size/weight argument is only valid for those who aren't loading it up with a keyboard cover. I assume everyone talking about coding on it are going to be using the Magic Keyboard.
Do I use it to code, no, but that is because I don’t really code anymore. I have used it along with parallels access to remote in to my Air from literally across the world, and run VSCode to troubleshoot some code for a friend. It worked fine. Anymore it’s become my travel machine.
Yes, but that's only helpful because it has a touch screen. I don't think detraching a screen from it's input devices would be a helpful feature. Touch makes that possible.
The Magic Keyboard is not a portable device. It is built and obviously intended to be a desk-based “dock” for your iPad. It’s weight isn’t really relevant, in fact I expect that they added weight as a counterbalance. I use the Smart Folio Keyboard for my iPad as it is lighter and more portable. Not as good for typing but I don’t type as much on the iPad as on a laptop.
I think there are two camps. Those who are constaintly removing their iPad from the Magic Keyboard for using it with touch and those who never it connected all the time.
If you are going somewhere and will want to type when you get there, the Magic Keyboard is coming with you. It folds up to act as a case for your iPad during transit... it is a portable device.
It’s ergonomic if you set it up right. I have a stand that I attach my IPAD to and pull out my mini mouse and keyboard and don’t have neck pains. With a laptop, you have to crane your neck down to look at it. I see it as like a laptop with a detachable screen.
It’s also less invasive that way, you can get a laptop stand but it looks ridiculous in coffee shops.
This might have been a valid complaint years ago, but now I think the app store rules (and well... sideloading) means that, if you want, you could build out all the apps needed to do this stuff!
There is almost nothing stopping people from writing up iPad apps for coding things up, except for the fact that there is no market. Apple is no longer standing in the way IMO (stuff like Pythonista exists after all)
Sideloading is not accessible to everyone, even though it's fairly easy to achieve. Most users, even technical, would not want to rely on such methods for installing a development environment (or customising their devices for example); Any tentative for monetising an application that depends on sideloading would be bound to fail at scale.
Is the context I described responsible for the lack of market? It may be.
I still think that iOS is the best mobile experience out there, but it's
Turning the iPad into a MacBook is far more than some artificial lock.
It requires consciously designing everything to work as both a fully fledged computer and content consumption device. That touches everything from product design, internal hardware, thermals, operating systems, frameworks etc.
It has a processor, ram, storage, video output, Bluetooth and network connectivity. I'd say it's already fully functioning computer designed to do any computing task. Of course, manufacturer wants it to be a locked down appliance, but its predatory behaviour is not a reason to sheepishly accept the status quo.
And what you say about 'consciously designed ...' amounts to nothing meaningful. Have you seen what hardware people have been running Doom on?
iPad's hardware is already a perfectly usable general purpose computer. It is very portable, unlike your fridge, and has powerful processor and high-capacity battery, unlike your watch. The only problem preventing its use as a general purpose computer in a sense of Macbook is a lock by the manufacturer, which prevents loading a proper OS on it, and the absence of hardware specs, nothing more.
Reductio ad absurdum just to drown out the merits of the parent post. Your iPad is far more capable than those three devices. It should be able to do what the user would like to do.
And an iPad is nowhere close to the safety-critical nature of the other computers. There is no defence for its locked down nature.
People understand this usually. The problem is that when we try to put the same restrictions upon developers of all users there's going to be a lot of friction with the assumptions in design and UX that make it so great for grandma. Bifurcating iPad OS into a pro v consumer version is probably going to result in worse issues for both groups as well, so building something that can be unlocked once in power user mode seems like the better option longer term. There's speculation about _why_ it's been so hard to get this right and only Apple can definitively say what the reasons are.
