Here's how I'd solve the "It's not powerful enough" problem with iPadOS

[Yebubbleman]

Every review of the new iPad Pro and new iPad Air ultimately says the same thing: "Great hardware; limiting software". I've partaken in dozens of conversations (both on and off these forums) about this very topic (even started a few, myself). And while it's easy to suggest that macOS on iPad is the solution, IT REALLY ISN'T.

Here's what I think might be:

iPadOS is still a mobile operating system. Even on the M4 iPad Pros. This is perfectly fine for the kinds of workloads that one might use a 10th Generation iPad or a 6th Generation iPad mini for. In fact iPadOS was never a bad operating system for iPads running A-series SoCs; iPads mainly intended for heavy media consumption and light productivity.

So, take the version of "iPadOS" for M-series iPads and completely re-work it. In fact, take the iPad Air and iPad Pro and rename them to something entirely different at their next refresh. Call it "Apple Canvas" or something like that. Apple Canvas Air and Apple Canvas Pro, if they REALLY MUST keep the Air and Pro monkers. iPadOS on A-series iPads can remain what it has been.

The reworked OS for M-series iPads could be called "CanvasOS" or something like that. The newer OS can still run normal iPadOS apps and iOS apps, just as before. App developers can optimize for this new OS or they can keep making iPadOS apps as they have before. Otherwise, you revamp the home screen such that, at the very least, documents share the home screen with installed apps, with nested folders bringing some kind of folder hierarchy. The files app would effectively merge with the home screen. This is probably a more conservative revamp of iPadOS's UI. If we really wanted to go balls to the walls with this, we could completely transform the home screen from an App-centric user interface into something that was either file-centric (a la desktop platforms) or a mix of both, where apps, files, and folders all have equal importance in the interface. Hell, do away with the home screen altogether since that is a phone-first convention anyway! Tap-and-hold gestures can become as powerful of a UI convention as control/right-clicking is on a Mac or PC. Apps could snap to full screen or share the screen's space without needing something kludgy like Stage Manager to take things full-screen. Add progress bars, add proper file management. Add true multi-user support and a Terminal (since "CanvasOS" or whatever it would be called would still be based on macOS and macOS still has UNIX under the hood). Add an Activity Monitor and a Disk Utility. Apps specifically designed for this OS could support actual plug-ins.

While it sounds like I'm just describing macOS on an iPad, I'm really not.

There's a world of possibility that exists between iPadOS and macOS. Those iPads now have the processing power, the RAM, and the disk space to be decent Mac alternatives and yet they're hobbled by the notion that an App-centric UI and platform - something perfect for iPhones and iPad minis - will make a truly capable computing platform just as great as the Mac.

Fork the OS for the M-series iPads. Spin the iPad Air and iPad Pro off into their own product category with their own name (not "iPad"); revamp the operating system to match the power of the hardware and provide a completely new touch-first operating system that leads in a class of its own. Then leave the iPad and iPad mini to shine as being great at exactly what they were great at being back in 2013; consumption devices with the ease and friendliness of iOS. My crude description of a revamped OS for the Air and the Pro (or whatever they'd end up being called) might not be the way. Honestly, there are several possible ways to do that. But it's obvious that iPadOS holds higher-end iPads back when they could be something greater all their own.

 

[Razeus]

Go to bed homie.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

Are we having this talk again?

Here's an idea: just bring MacOS apps to iPad. This is Apple - the company that brought iPad apps to desktop, that brought all of x86 to ARM. They can figure out how to containerize a MacOS runtime environment.

Before you say "that'll cannibalize the Mac!" consider that you'll still need to use the App Store (or alternative marketplace for Europeans). No downloading whatever app from whatever website still.

 

[FeliApple]

This... again?!

 

[NEPOBABY]

Are we having this talk again?

Here's an idea: just bring MacOS apps to iPad. This is Apple - the company that brought iPad apps to desktop, that brought all of x86 to ARM. They can figure out how to containerize a MacOS runtime environment.

Before you say "that'll cannibalize the Mac!" consider that you'll still need to use the App Store (or alternative marketplace for Europeans). No downloading whatever app from whatever website still.

That’s why you people like you don’t work for Apple. Otherwise users would be in pain from using an OS with a much larger footprint running on a device not suitable for a large OS.

This horse has been flogged to death already.

Load Clip Studio Paint up on the iPad. It’s a carbon copy of the desktop app. Try to navigate and select menus with your fingers. It’s incredibly annoying. It also eats battery life and makes the tablet too warm to rest your hands on because desktop software isn’t designed for portability.

That’s why they finally gave iPad users a simple touch friendly interface.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

That’s why you people like you don’t work for Apple.

I'm sure you're employed by them, are the benefits any good?

Load Clip Studio Paint up on the iPad. It’s a carbon copy of the desktop app. Try to navigate and select menus with your fingers. It’s incredibly annoying. It also eats battery life and makes the tablet too warm to rest your hands on because desktop software isn’t designed for portability.

This is a developer issue. If they fail to optimize for iPad, users will likely switch to an alternative vendor that has made better software for the form factor. Moreover, the same users that want to use desktop software likely want to do so with a mouse and keyboard.

If this is the experience Developers choose for their users, and that users choose for themselves, I don't see the issue.

 

[Alameda]

iPadOS is still a mobile operating system. Even on the M4 iPad Pros.

So, take the version of "iPadOS" for M-series iPads and completely re-work it. In fact, take the iPad Air and iPad Pro and rename them to something entirely different at their next refresh. Call it "Apple Canvas" or something like that. Apple Canvas Air and Apple Canvas Pro, if they REALLY MUST keep the Air and Pro monkers. iPadOS on A-series iPads can remain what it has been.

I think iPadOS is fine, they just need to open up more functionality:

1. Files app needs to be much more Finder-like. The file management model is bad. Some people like saving to the cloud, and others don’t. The file management paradigm simply breaks with 1 TB iPads. (Or 256/512 GB, for that matter).
2. Copy/Paste needs to be much better…. Specifically, marking text for Copy is really bad on iPadOS.
3. Stage Manager on an external monitor is quite bad. I ought to be able to just manipulate windows with the trackpad or mouse.
4. There’s zero excuse why I can’t use a web browser that’s 100% functional to Safari/Chrome/Firefox on MacOS.
5. Make these features available on the Pro series and not the others, so they can justify the higher price.

I think these are the main things. At a technical level, there is probably more that needs to be opened up for developers, but they don’t need a whole new OS or a new paradigm. They should worry more about the $875 laptop cannibalizing the $2,000 tablet, not the $2,000 tablet cannibalizing the $750 laptop.