Another fool talking for all (pro) users. I say fool because only a fool would think that every single (pro) user has the same use case as they do....
As a serious question, what workflow will you be using to accomplish "pro" tasks on the iPad?
I'm a professional food photographer, cookbook designer, and cookbook co-author. All told, my books have sold over 2 million copies.
I am also an indie filmmaker with a movie released in 18 countries that was even for sale at Wal-Mart.
In my cookbook business, I require the full version of MS Word with full use of paragraph styles and formatting. I also often use collaboration features and more often I use revision tracking as I work with my co-authors.
Those documents are then imported into Adobe InDesign to go into format. This cannot be done with Google Docs, etc. Once the book is designed it goes through rounds of edits with comment tracking in the full version of Adobe Acrobat.
Photography for the books is taken in RAW format, tethered directly into my Surface to allow for live feedback as styling and lighting is adjusted. Photos are edited in Lightroom then sent to Photoshop for final touch ups and to convert to CMYK.
Photos are imported into the InDesign book file, which is soft proofed using the printer's CMYK profile.
The final book is then uploaded as an InDesign package via FTP to the printing company's servers.
On the filmmaking side, I am admittedly more indie. All footage is shot in ProRes HQ at only 1080p. My second movie that I am finishing now had 800gb of footage. All work is done on the main drive with the footage on an external drive. Both the work and footage are backed up on 2 additional drives, one that is kept in a fireproof safe. Editing is done in Adobe Premiere. Sound design is done in a combination of Reaper, Adobe Audition, and izotope RX2. Scoring is recorded using a USB interface and mixing is done using a USB sound card into studio monitors. Color grading is done through Davinci Resolve and rendered out as lossless files that can easily approach 1tb for a full movie.
The finished movie is rendered out to a file that is about 170gb, more than the max storage of the iPad Pro. Again, only 1080p. It is then turned into a DCP for festival playback using OpenDCP and an external hard drive. Other festivals require a Blu-ray Disc that is burned with my external blu burner.
As far as I can tell, there isn't a single aspect of my writing, photography, design, editing, sound mixing, or content delivery that can be accomplished on the iPad Pro. I can and have performed them on a Surface Pro. We're talking about a ton of professional disciplines here and the true workflow required to deliver that work to printers, film festivals, distributors, or even Apple's own iTunes platform (which actually requires that movies be delivered on an HDCAM videotape).
The iPad Pro will find a home in more specialized locations, such as hospitals, once sophisticated and custom software is developed.
The onus is now on the app developers to make the iPad Pro into a truly professional device. I think it can happen, but it is going to take years before these kinds of workflows can happen on iOS. It's a catch 22 where you can't entice the professional without the software and no one will make the software without the customers.
The lack of USB devices is what is most problematic. It is disingenuous to promote 4K video editing when your max storage taps out at 128GB. But it isn't just storage, it is color calibrators, sound cards, editing shuttles, tactile mixing surfaces, disc burners, etc.
I don't think an iPad needs to be this professional, but I also don't think so many people should defend Apple's reluctance to include a touchscreen on an OSX device. OSX may not be optimized for touch, but the Apple Pencil could still have tremendous uses on OSX. If there wasn't a use for a stylus on their full OS, then Wacom wouldn't even exist as a company. A stylus is fantastic for touching up Photos, for drawing in professional apps that have no iOS equal, and even for drawing envelopes in music mixing software. Apple doesn't have to make OSX into a touch OS to put Wacom out of business.
