The iPad is Dead!!???

Apple announced their current earnings and the big news is that the iPad is dead.  Well, not exactly....but they said that the iPad revenues were down year over year and alarmist are saying the iPad is dead.

Be more like the Surface Pro?

The amount of people that think the iPad should be more similar to the Microsoft Surface Pro is staggering.  A day doesn't go by without some poster on some forum saying that Apple is being killed or will be killed by Microsofts Surface line up.   

Let's look at the numbers:

iPad - revenue $5.533bn
Mac - revenue $7.244bn
Surface - revenue $1.32 bn

While some may argue that iPads are declining and Surface devices are climbing, they would be wrong.  The iPad and the Surface are both declining when compared to last year.   So we are saying that the iPad, with more than 4 times the revenue, should following the Surface?  This makes about as much sense as New Coke.

Touch Screen Mac is the answer?

While I have no problem with MacOS going to touchscreen at some point in the future, I don't think that the iPad should run it.  The iPad needs to stick with the shared iOS ecosystem with a few more iPad only features like split screen multitasking that it currently enjoys.  The idea that people will only buy one Swiss Army Knife that does everything, but does nothing perfect, is not the right answer for Apple.  That being said, I would love a dual boot machine that runs both operating systems.  However, that would be one very expensive device for it to make sense for Apple. 

Isn't the iPad dying?

Personally, I don't think it is.  Apple sold over 13 million iPads in the last quarter.  The Mac, in comparison, sold around 5.5 million.  In other words, the iPad was more than twice as popular for purchasers as the Mac. The market is shrinking, but that is because it competes with the iPads people already own.  Since the device has only been out for about 7 years, we don't really know the how long people will hold onto them before they upgrade.   However, Apple still sells a  whole lot of iPads.  

Status Quo?

I am not saying Apple should stick with the status quo.  They should work with companies like Adobe to bring mobile versions of Photoshop to the iPad with Pencil input.  That feature alone, if only on new iPads, would get a lot of people to upgrade or buy their first iPad.  It needs to be able to send audio to more than one Airplay device, like you can do with the iTunes on the Mac.   That is not to say I want it to be a Mac.  The thing I enjoy most about the iPad is that I can run most of the same apps I have on my iPhone.  It is just a better Touch environment because it is built around Touch.   

Siri is one answer

The iPad needs deeper Siri integration and Apple needs a way for us to call the iPad something other than Siri.  I don't like setting all my devices off by saying "Hey Siri".   Better microphones on the iPad could mean it could be docked in a room and used similar to an Echo.  It has decent speakers already,  but being able to say "iPad, play George Michail on AppleTV or in Zone One" would give you the ability to send audio all over the house without needing a computer in the mix.    Since the iPhone is often in my pocket and iPads are typically docked until I need them, they make a better solution than the iPhone for this situation.   

Apple Watch

I should easily be able to pair my Apple Watch to my iPad.  I should be able to walk in the house and tell it to pair with the iPad or even set up Geofencing so it does it automatically when I am home.   

The Wrap Up

To wrap thing up, the iPad is not dead.  It simply has a lot more competition, including the iPads that people already own.  I think that Apple should add more features without sacrificing the OS to MacOS.  The reason the iPad sells as well as it does is the fact that it shares much of the same OS with one of the most popular consumer products in history (if not the most popular)....the iPhone.  

Personally, I was happy to get Pencil input, but Apple needs to build on the capabilities of the Pencil by working with Adobe to make Photoshop and Illustrator mobile versions available.   Affinity (a terrific Mac photo app) showed off an iPad version of their photography application over a year ago and it still hasn't been introduced to the iPad.  Apple should contact them and see what is holding it up.  In other words, they need to reach out to companies that make popular programs that would be ideal for the iPad and see what it will take to make it happen.   I want to be able to seamlessly move from iPad to Mac and back without feeling like I am sacrificing too much.  

​Of course, it would have been even better if Apple still had pro apps like Aperture that would be ideal for the iPad, but short of that happening they need to reach out to companies and get things rolling.  However, I think the iPad is far from being dead.  In fact, I prefer using it over my other devices most of the time, but they need to continue to add more capabilities, without losing the simplicity of the operating system, to get me to upgrade...which is where a lot of people are right now.