Apple is running ads for the iPad Pro called “5 reasons iPad Pro can be your next computer”. I wish that was true. I wrote about it before, but what I didn’t write about was that my mom uses her iPad Pro just like that. Her old Windows computer was dying after 7 years and to be honest I’m surprised she could use it at all. The last couple of years she literally set down the laptop on the dining room table and made coffee before she could use it. She finally acknowledged early this year that she wanted something else. I told her she should get an iPad Pro with a keyboard. She balked a lot about the cost, but in the end, she caved and bought one.
Now she mentions at least every other month that she’s so happy with it. It clearly works for her. She loves that she has her own iPad – she used to share one with my dad. She also loves that she can put it down and connect a keyboard to it to write emails. To her, the iPad Pro with a keyboard IS a genuine laptop replacement.
One of the reasons the iPad works for her too is that she can’t break anything. She can click on apps, navigate around and it never breaks. With Windows, she was often confused and upgrades broke things or put functionality in a different place. The upgrade to Windows 10 was especially painful for her and she never recovered from that. The iPad and IOS feel safe to her. There are no windows to manage and the apps are always in the same place on her home screen. It’s a testament to Apple they made computing easy.
To me personally, it’s still not there but I’d like it to be. But especially in multi-tasking, IOS fails horribly. It’s great if you do your work in one app and then move on. It isn’t so great if you want to use multiple apps simultaneously.
Here’s the Apple’s ad: