Back in 2010 , the iPad represented a variety of mystical missing piece meant to bridge over two very different Book . On one side , the ultra - mobile iPhone offer great potency despite its limits , and on the other , the brawny Mac had a ripe adequate to platform but was nowhere near as portable . The iPad was meant to match between them , extend a desktop - expressive style experience in a roving computer software .
To say the iPad was a hit is an understatement . It at once became the dissolute intersection to reach every major milepost all the fashion up to 250 million sales – no small effort when you consider it followed things like the iPod , iPhone and iMac . Even now , the iPad is still the quickest seller in Apple ’s story .
But there ’s been adownward trendof late . The iPhone is hot than ever , butiPad sale have significantly sputter , fall nearly 25 percentage when compare to last twelvemonth . But that does n’t intend the iPad ca n’t have a resurgence .
Force of nature
Right out of the gate , the iPad had to overcome a fair amount of criticism , and the biggest objection was its similarity to the iPhone . It was n’t just the individual - clitoris design — the iPad take to the woods an operating system intimately identical to the iPhone ’s and did n’t introduce a undivided new feature , unless you count the power to splay the dwelling house screen to play in landscape manner .
And five twelvemonth afterwards , not much has changed . The job is n’t so much that the iPad feels like a large iPhone . It ’s that there are n’t enough compelling features — or any , to be dead honest — to separate it from its minuscule sibling . From the Retina show to Touch ID , every great feature film has gotten its start on the iPhone , and it often takes a genesis or two to appear on the tab . And once it does , there ’s nothing bigger or well about it .
Force Touch would be even better on the iPad than the iPhone .
Each generation of iPhone introduces a feature that makes us desire it , but not many iPad models have been must - haves.iPad Air came tight , but even with its slimmed - down case and tone bezels , it lacked a genuine killer feature film ( like Touch ID from the iPhone 5s , for exercise ) to crusade it over the top . If Apple want the iPad to be a biennial product like the iPhone , we need more reasons to elevate beyond undecomposed comfortableness and weight unit .
This year , that could be Force Touch — the compounding of multi - touch and the iPad ’s big blind could bring the technology to another stratum . Even if Apple were to contribute it to the iPhone 6s first , Force Touch on the iPad could volunteer a smashing experience , with taptic feedback while typic and floating contextual menus that bring options and palettes to our fingertip .
Task manager
If the iPad Air 3 lacks any slayer new hardware characteristic , what about special computer software capabilities ? It seems passably clear thatApple is n’t going to release a hybrid operating systemanytime soon , but Io does n’t have to be as limiting as Apple make it . Year after year , Apple has stopped dead of tot up iPad - only features , and as iOS matures , very picayune about it feels as though it was built with a tablet - sized screen in mind .
The most obvious change is multitasking . As it suffer , multitasking on iOS total to little more than switch between apps via the carousel . It ’s a fine answer ( made even quicker on the iPad with the five - fingerbreadth “ claw ” gesture ) , but it pales in comparing to multitasking on OS X. It ’s one of the starkest differences between the direction we work on our Macs and our pill ; something as simple as copying text or comparing images requires several steps on the iPad , and the unremitting back - and - forth move stymies any substantial attempt at multitasking .
Apps like Duet Display make us wish the iPad could multitask like the Mac .
It ’s not just an overdue characteristic , it ’s probably the most sought - after one since copy and spread , and if done aright , it could give the iPad a much - need boost in the productivity department . Side - by - side apps is the obvious option , but Apple could also tap into the sharing and action extension phone in iOS to develop an completely new manner of multitasking , with in - app browsers and notepads that drink down up when Force Touch is implemented .
Remote control
Despite its power , there ’s still an overall percept that the iPad is a junior-grade gadget , used for low tasks and have content , rather than doing actual employment . To that end , Apple latterly launchedan ad campaignto spotlight the myriad ways to get things done on the iPad . But to pose it as a knock-down gadget that “ change everything , ” Apple should build a closer kinship between the iPad and the Mac .
We ’ve seen glimpses of how nicely the two can dally together with things likeHandoff and persistence , but with a screen closer in size of it to the one on the new MacBook than the iPhone 6 Plus , the iPad is in a singular position . Even if Apple never conform OS X for multitouch , it could still merge the two OSes and transform the iPad into a versatile gadget that adapts to however you happen to be work .
AirDrop is great , but transferring a few file at a clock time is n’t the selling point that buit - in VNC admission , single file conveyance , and screen communion would be .
The fundamental lies in comprehend VNC . For years , Apple Remote Desktop has allow IT professionals to keep tab key on piles of Macs at once , but Apple has been reluctant to work its monitoring app to iOS . Apps likeScreensandSplashtopalready offer easy ways to access your Mac ’s screen , but a solution baked into iOS would gravely up the ante for the iPad , both as a yield and a multitasking tool . Being able to quickly access file cabinet on your Mac would be one affair , but Apple could let you access your iPhone ’s screen too , solving many of the frustrations we have with the one - app - at - a - clip model .
Go Pro
For intimately a year now , rumor have pointed to a fresh variety of iPad — suppose of it as the opposite of the iPad miniskirt . The so - callediPad Procaters to user who need an even big screen . A 12 - in iPad might seem like the nichiest of corner products , but when you offend it down , it might not be so crazy .
How coolheaded would it be to have one cable television for charge your Mac or your iPad ? ( Or charge your iPad from your Mac or frailty versa ? )
Back in 2012 when I bought the 15 - in MacBook Pro with Retina Display , I assumed it would be the last Mac I every purchased . ground on price , future O go support , and my heavier reliance on the iPad , I estimated a 7- to 8 - year lifespan for the machine , an eternity in the tech worldly concern . It seemed coherent that by 2020 there would be a new course of study of machine to shut the gap between our tablets and notebooks . If the iPad Pro is genuine , it could land us nigher to that seeming inevitableness , take developer to rethink the capabilities and interfaces of their apps once again .
A jumbo screen would suggest a unlike iOS experience – perhaps one that finally ditch the icon grid or adds a Dashboard - flair widget environment . But to really attract user on either side of the fence , Apple could make the iPad Pro the first iOS twist to use USB - C. Using a USB - C saddle port instead of Lightning would reach the iPad Pro up to a world of grand , productive and file - sharing capabilities . That alone could be reason enough for people to ditch their fully work iPads to advance to a novel one .
And it would give its new slogan–“Everything modification with iPad”–a whole lot more meaning .
