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Apple Has Likely Abandoned 'iPad Ultra' Plans

kinless said:
Us musicians would've loved to have one for 2-up lead sheets and reduced page turns and but alas we'll have to make do with smaller scores.
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My exact use case. I have a 13" iPad Pro I use exclusively for my music (voice, piano, clarinet). I would LOVE to have a side-by-side display with that size to show my music two pages at a time!
 
Dirk Pieters said:
So you feel that Apple should offer a single device that runs both iPadOS and macOS for less than half the price compared to what these 2 separate devices cost now?

Why would they do that?
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Because they want to sell them.

Looking at a 13 inch MacBook Air, that's currently £1099.

An 11 inch iPad Pro with a keyboard would be £799 + £199, so £998, or 13 inch plus keyboard £1198. That compares very favourably.

Currently if you want a Mac you're getting the Mac and not getting the iPad Pro, sales of the iPad Pro are also low as the article indicated. At least giving the iPad Pro a clear purpose and it would make that an option, Apple will still be making money on the sale but you've got a more flexible, versatile device for those that want it.

And if you're still getting a Mac then you've got the regular iPad as a content consumption/sketchbook to be a companion to it if you wish. And of course if you want a Mac and an iPad Pro there's nothing stopping you.
 
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the Pro should drop in price and be what the Air should be. Then have a line above that if they think they need it
 
Halmahc said:
But your niche claim is not supported by the numbers. It’s been reported that the iPad Pro account for about 50% of iPad sales in some years. That doesn’t sound like a niche product.
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From the article

"The iPad Pro's sales struggles are well documented. In October 2024, it was reported that shipment projections for the M4 iPad Pro had been significantly cut after weaker-than-expected demand following its launch earlier that year."


iPad is getting squeezed from the bottom by larger smartphones, and from the top by more capable, laptops with ARM chips. It needs a reason to exist and slimming the line up down and refocusing would help it rather than churning out version after version of the same thing.
 
ScooterComputer said:
Good.
The iPad Ultra should be a component of the MacBook Ultra… which should basically be a Mac Surface Book: a MacBook Pro deck with a detachable iPad Pro, that work in concert when attached, and can work separately if the deck is connected to a dock or Studio Display or iMac (or with the iPad Pro in Sidecar mode).
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So you would have two chips in it, including double ram/storage? Sounds like double the price for very little extra utility beyond carrying around an iPad to sidecar on a mac mini
 
Bubble99 said:
I'm not sure what Apple can do other than add multi user logins to the OS. How else can you make OS more pro?
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Daemons, full scripting/automation. And most importantly, apps that are equivalent to their macOS versions instead of being cut down ones.

I'd like to see iPadOS be a co-equal to macOS as much as possible. I don't think that either would cannibize each other. Some people prefer laptops. Some want a modular computer. Some want the power of UNIX, or others, they are going to stay in modern GUI apps and don't need that level of control.
 
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Halmahc said:
But your niche claim is not supported by the numbers. It’s been reported that the iPad Pro account for about 50% of iPad sales in some years. That doesn’t sound like a niche product.
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But the report states that the M4 iPad wasn't doing as well as expected, so...
 
I seem to always choose devices the market doesn’t want. I loved my iPhone 5/SE and never wanted a bigger phone. Now I love my iPad Pro 11” for the screen, sound and lightness and I don’t have or need a laptop with a keyboard in the way.
 
TechRemarker said:
iPad Pro sale issues are of their own making however, not a lack of customer demand. Hardware is amazing, but held back by the software as they and everyone knows. iPadOS itself and the restrictions and rules that make it not sustainable for devs to build native software on the platform that is needed for pros. Devs either skipped supporting it or did and then eventually abandoned it after noting in blog posts the reason why it wasn't sustainable due to Apple limitations. Some of those are for performance, some security, and others for maintaining Apple's profits. Since Apple hasn't budged on any of that over the years, other than in places where forced to by a government a bit, I assume they decide the downsides for Apple as a whole aren't worth the gains of increase iPad Pro sales, which would still be relatively niche compared to things like the iPhone.

They may have decided it makes more sense to have macOS get touch support and then put on a more iPad like device than the bigger changes it would take to make iPadOS as powerful as macOS. Time will tell.
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So you are upset Apple did not develop Pro apps for the iPad?
 
Most people don’t want to spend thousands on a tablet, when they could just get a laptop for the same price. Who ever would have guessed…
 
I got a pro because I always wanted to try one. Had the OG and 2 Airs before. Sure, it got a better screen, but even as someone who does photo editing and video-color-grading, I hardly care. Having a camera bump is worse than having none with a camera you barely use. LIDAR seems nice to have, but neither does it make AR rock solid, nor is it's resolution that great for 3d-scanning and measuring.

Sure, it's the fastest ipad, but apart from editing photos the workflow is so slow compared to macOS, that raw speed won't make any difference in an ipad. Battery life of the pro is the worst of all iPads I ever had.

But I found one use case where I actually got benefits from having a pro. Running multiple (cheaper on ios) synthesizer apps in a DAW-less hybrid setup. There, more RAM and a faster processor is appreciated and ipadOS doesn't get in your way because you control those apps by MIDI anyway. So, I'm still glad that I got it, but that's probably not the killer app that makes apple sell ipad pros at scale.

And the there's the other thing that it doesn't seem very robust (in contrast to other "pro"gear). If I drop it on hard floor that's maybe €1200 gone or a repair at a pricpoint that will probably make me buy an air again.
 
Halmahc said:
But your niche claim is not supported by the numbers. It’s been reported that the iPad Pro account for about 50% of iPad sales in some years. That doesn’t sound like a niche product.
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Lets see the next sales numbers, with MacBook Neo in the market.
 
jhwalker said:
My exact use case. I have a 13" iPad Pro I use exclusively for my music (voice, piano, clarinet). I would LOVE to have a side-by-side display with that size to show my music two pages at a time!
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Makes sense, but you probably wouldn't want to pay $2,5k for that.

Btw. are there already apps that can read notation off a .pdf, listen to your playing and then automatically turn pages? Seems like a no-brainer to me, but as I haven't played from sheets for a long time, I have never looked.
 
The problem with the IPP M series is that the M1 was so fast there was never a reason to get another. I use mine every day, and it'll be great for years.

And it makes even less sense with the iPad Air 13 in the mix. The screen on the IPP is better, but it sounds like for most people the cost delta isn't worth it.
 
the iPad could be a fantastic device if you could use it with macOS when in docked mode with external mouse and keyboard (and optionally a bigger screen). But it doesn't do that and it's just a consumption device. And consumption makes your brain rot. I'm not touching this with a 10 feet pole.
 
There was never an iPad Ultra. With the iPhone Fold and Macbook Touch coming. This product will be used to deplete leftover A-chips. Within 10 years this product is obsolete.
 
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