The recent release of the iPad Pro has brought Apple’s approach to mobile computing into focus, and the push to offer the tablet as a viable laptop replacement—at least at consumer levels—is apparent. What advantages does Apple see in the iPad Pro?
New MacBook Pro laptops are displayed (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The obvious point of difference is in the chipset. Apple introduced the first M-Series chipsets on the MacBook Air in 2020, cutting ties with the Intel-based hardware used for over a decade. This ARM-based chipset offers more performance at lower operating temperatures while using less battery power to deliver similar results.
It handed Apple an advantage on consumer and professional laptops and desktops that the Windows-powered competition is only now matching.
Yet the latest generation of this technology, the M4 chipset, debuted in the new iPad Pro. That offers Apple’s tablet a significant performance gain over other tablets and laptops. If you wanted Apple to make a statement on which platform it intends to promote and push, the choice to debut on the iPad Pro highlights Apple’s potential answer.
This year is the year of the tablet, not the year of the Mac.
The M4 chipset is not the only significant advantage Apple has gifted the iPad Pro while holding it back from the MacBook platform. The iPad Pro comes with a cutting-edge OLED display that offers brighter and more vivid colors, and deeper blacks, all while using less power. It’s a technology widely found on Windows laptops, yet the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models of 2024 remain stuck in the past with mini-LED displays locked at a 60 Hz refresh rate.
The MacBook Pro display was already looking tired and outdated compared to the vast number of OLED-equipped Windows laptops. There has been a gap in the spec sheets for many years. Yet Apple has handed the technology to the iPad first, visually calling out its favoritism of the tablet.
Finally, look at the world of applications around macOS and iPadOS. Apple has curated countless apps and games running on iPadOS. All of them are available through the App Store and have been explicitly signed off as suitable for iPad by Apple. That gives consumers confidence in terms of compatibility, but it does mean ceding control of their tablet to Apple.
Given the closed nature of the system, Apple has complete control over what third-party developers can do with the iPad platform. That Apple gets a thirty percent rake on every app sale and a similar cut on in-game purchases is just a bonus.
That’s the business model that made the iPhone a financial powerhouse. While you could attempt to introduce this to the Mac, it’s far easier to continue building this on the iPad.
Apple has debuted the latest hardware on the iPad; it has left the MacBook to fall behind competing Windows laptops as it brings OLED to the iPad rather than the Mac; and maintains control over every piece of software that can run on the iPad to ensure its vision of mobile computing continues to be delivered.
Through its actions, Apple has shown what it wants the next generation of mobile consumer technology to be represented by… and it’s not a Mac.
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