The debate started due to one simple reason: the very launching of the iPad Pro last November. It's been slightly reconfigured (smart connector and accessories) and re-marketed as a productivity machine. For those that passed on the 12.9" Pro, now the 9.7" Pro has launched and renewed some interest. I personally didn't bite until the 9.7" launched.
So--for the people who never though of the iPad this way, some of them are starting to re-evaluate what they use an iPad for and if that usage can evolve and increase to the point where maybe the Pro really IS the machine they've been waiting for. The other side is the people who are holding on to their laptops for dear life, either because the iPad doesn't do essential things they need to do yet, or because they just aren't willing to change the way they do their computing. Or maybe a little of both. I know I scoffed at the notion of a "Pro" iPad at first too--and it's well documented.
But things are changing. Computing is changing. Hardware and software capability is changing. There are a LOT of computer users out there who never truly NEEDED a full blown Windows or Mac machine to do what they need to do on a computer. That was just the tech that was available to the mass market for a long, long time. Now we have super computers that fit in our pockets, purses, and backpacks. Developers and users alike are starting to want to take full advantage of that freedom. Getting rid of legacy products takes decades because people are resistant to change. The is the phenomenon that the iPad Pro represents, and for some people, that's scary.
Totally agree with you on all counts here! And it's true what you say about part of the reason being is our slowness to adopt from legacy software to the newer kind, that definitely plays a role.
However, for most things, just about any smartphone or tablet can do the majority of things now for most people, but there are still certain things that only computers can do, but it is getting less and less as time goes by. One classic example that's relevant to me personally, is that while nearly every major software company has their own spreadsheet software of some kind, and they're all fine if all you really need are grid-lines and mathematical functions, but for the powerful things that only stuff like VBA for excel could do (not relevant for the everyday user, but essential for programmers like myself), it's the one thing that's still kept me hanging on to my windows machine. (but the sad fact is, I'm having to use my old windows 7 machine to even do it, because later versions don't seem to even fully support it). So I'm dreading the day that windows 10 upgrade becomes mandatory, as I need what it does to be able to fully do my job, and I can use Apple for nearly everything else, and in many ways, Apple simply so most of those things better, so for me personally, without VBA for Excel, Microsoft will simply stop being relevant.
If they start fully supporting it (fully) on the iOS versions of excel though, I do think that would be the future. It's reassuring to see that they seem to have made an attempt, but it's seriously a long way off. But as a programmer, I do strongly feel it's the only way that Microsoft could ever become useful to me again once windows 7 stops existing. (So hint hint Microsoft, sort yourself out!) lol. The post PC era is coming, and is more or less here, but this is no time for killing good stuff off, it's the time that both companies ought to realize what the things are that they do best. There are things that people love about both ways of doing things that need to be kept, and things that people universally hate about each company's methods that should be the focus of what they get rid of. We've all known what each of those things were for quite some time now, so all it would really take is for them just to listen to us! But the day they stop bickering and just bring all the good stuff together in one place, that's the dawn of a bright future (..and also where the money is!!)
