The Apple MacBook Air was one of the best laptops in its class, hands down. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to die at the hands of a much less worthy opponent – the iPad Pro. During WWDC 2017, specifically the section for iOS 11, Apple introduced a whole bunch of features like it was a revolutionary jump from iOS 10. But all it was, was an attempt to bring in some staid desktop capabilities to iOS. More specifically, it was an unspoken statement that clearly said Apple was going to kill off one of its laptops in favor of giving a boost to iPad usage.
Here are some of the features they announced for iOS 11:
Multi-tasking – more than one app can be used at the same time
A dock at the bottom of the screen (macOS rip-off)
The ability to browse files using the new “Files” app
Drag and drop items from one app to another
Now, if you’re wondering why these sound so much like what desktops have been able to do for the past two decades or more, you’d be spot on! That’s what Apple is trying to do with iOS. A clumsy attempt at bringing desktop features to iOS 11 so iPad Pro can feel like a real laptop instead of a tablet with a keyboard.
It’s a sad state of affairs, because companies like Microsoft and Google are actually trying to blur the lines between mobile and desktop in meaningful ways, while the world’s most valuable company is putting stilts on iOS to try and make it function like a desktop operating system.
That might even be acceptable if Apple didn’t make great laptops, which it does. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air line-up of laptops are the best in their class, only recently being outdone by what Microsoft Surface devices are capable of.
As it stands, it looks like Apple is trying to turn the iPad Pro into a laptop, and an extremely primitive one at that. Imagine highlighting the drag and drop feature this way:
“The iPad of course is the ultimate multi-handed, multi-touch device. And so we’re so excited to bring drag-and-drop to iPad! You can drag images, you can drag text, you can drag URLs. You can multi-select and multi-hand drag. It’s a drag-fest.” – Apple senior VP Craig Federighi
If that’s not the sign of a company starved for ideas, I don’t know what is.
One thing I’ll admit is that having such features on a mobile device like an iPhone is certainly something else. That’s the next evolutionary stage for mobile operating systems, anyway. But to try and use that to turn the iPad into a desktop is simply ridiculous.
That’s the direction Apple seems to be taking with MacBook Air and iPad Pro. Hopefully, MacBook Pro won’t get dragged into this “drag-fest” and lose out in the process. Probably not.
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