Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column , which let in all the Apple news show you pretermit last calendar week in a ready to hand pungency - sized roundup . We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it snuff it great with a Monday first light cup of coffee or afternoon tea , but it ’s coolheaded if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner party hours too .
Return of the king
So it change state out that story of the iPad ’s death were greatly magnified . In Apple’slatest financial report , overall revenue was surprisingly strong , not because of any particular success among the iPhone , Mac , and Wearables department ( all of which were fundamentally unconditional yr - on - year ) but thanks to a sizeable improvement from Services and a elephantine 24 percent improvement from the iPad .
Where did we go wrong , then , we skeptical iPad end of the world - bargainer and naysayers ? We told the world that the iPad range wasconfusingand theneven more confusing . We claimed Apple had no ideawhat to do with the iPad . We thought the 2024 Air was anawkward center childwhose only determination was to make other models look more likeable by comparison . And we imagine that even the impossibly corking M4 iPad Pro was hold back from being a bang by thefailings of iPadOS . Is it time for a heaped serving of low pie ?
Of course not . Pundits are never wrong . They just have n’t explain themselves properly .
So , first up : these numbers are good for Apple , but they ’re not representative of some fearless new dawning for the iPad . The company did n’t release any novel iPads for the entireness of 2023 ( the first time it ’s done that across a calendar year since the first iPad came out in 2010 ) which think of requirement was bottled up .
the great unwashed might be holding on to their iPads for longer than in the past because old models do everything they postulate and newfangled framework are rarely exciting , but it ’s not like upgrade requirement break tozero . If you wait for long enough , you ’ll have amassed a becoming group of people who ’d like to grease one’s palms a raw iPad if and when one comes out . ( That is n’t a in effect long - term strategy , by the way ; as time snuff it and no new Apple models appeared , that chemical group will have bleed out a minor but significant number of frustrated switcher to Microsoft and Android . ) Sure enough , when Apple released new Air and Pro models and dropped the price of the 10th - gen iPad , social unit shifted . Big surprisal . Let ’s see if that continues into the next quarter .
Second , the problems we talked about have n’t go away . On the macro scale , tablet simply never took off in the elbow room we hoped : customer just did n’t go for it in big enough numbers as a serious , productive form factor . ( I have to stress the “ in fully grown enough issue ” part because every time I write about this I get emails from people who work completely on an iPad . Good fortune to those hoi polloi , but there are n’t enough of you for Apple ’s liking . ) consumer like the idea of an second - boot medium - sieve portable for medium consumption on the couch , but that is n’t a setting where you want to kick upstairs the ironware oft . For work , masses continue to use a smartphone and a laptop computer . That might change at some point , but it has n’t yet .
Specifically to Apple , iPadOS stay a problem — maybe the trouble . If it was better for multitasking , the iPad would have wider solicitation as a laptop replacement . If it got feature ahead of iOS , or even at the same clock time , Apple could more convincingly claim the iPad was a priority rather than a pallid phantom of the iPhone . The difficulty is that complexness is not what the iPad ’s main current market wants … which might intend it ’s time to ramify off the operating organisation once again and make one for the standard iPad and iPad mini , and another for the Air and Pro .
I ’m very warm of the iPad and took no joy in its struggles over the past few long time . I ’d love for Apple to get it right . But it has n’t done so yet , and a temporary sales prominence is n’t going to win over me otherwise .
Foundry
Theultra - slender iPhone 17is precisely the kind of riskApple motivation to take .
Apple TV+has recede the plot , reckons the Macalope .
TheApple Watchhas reached thelimits of its potential .
Itried Apple Vision Proand itmade me rethink everything .
I neverregretted buy an Apple gadget – until now .
Podcast of the week
On this episode of the Macworld Podcast , we ’re having anairing of grievance — what are some thing we wish well Apple would pay attention to ? air in and get hold out !
you may catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast onSpotify , Soundcloud , thePodcasts app , orour own site .
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
We just catch our first feel at theiPhone 16and Applefinally have the coloration correct .
Applejust leakeda bunch ofupcoming iPhones , Macs , and iPads .
Apple eyesads on Apple TV+,report claim .
TheiPhone 16might notarrive with Apple Intelligence .
Software updates, bugs, and problems
You really really reallyneed to upgrade your Mac . Like really .
‘ Crazy Evil’Mac malware poses as Loom , other popular appsto steal Bitcoin .
iOS 17.6 is now availablewithbug fixesand security improvements .
Elon Musk ’s X teamremembers the Mac exists , issue tokill the Twitter app .
iOS 18.1 genus Beta isavailable earlyto testApple news features .
macOS 14.6finally bringsdual external display supportto the M3 MacBook Pro .
