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ipad pro: surely apple will kill this before it dies 👻

13 Mar 2023

Back in late 2017, I posted a review of my 10.5 inch iPad Pro. Over five years later, I’m sat at my kitchen table with that same (model of) iPad Pro hooked up to a 22” monitor with an Apple Keyboard typing away at this blog post.

Of course, the hardware in this machine has not changed in that time, but iOS certainly has.

ios maturity

iOS 11 was the flagship release alongside this iPad, and it came along with a confidence from Apple that the line between a ‘computer’ and an iPad had officially, finally, blurred. What I think I did successfully pick up upon way back then is that Apple had successfully managed to redefine the word ‘professional’ to mean ‘pro-sumer’, and that app support and the design of iOS at the time limited what it could do.

Flash forward to iOS16, and despite this iPad not receiving Stage Manager (more on that later), the operating system has matured. Apps have also matured, and it is quite feasible to replace your main computer with an iPad nowadays, or at least that’s what many YouTubers would want to convince you.

As previously mentioned, I’m writing this blog post on my iPad. Whilst 5 years ago that meant I was typing it into my notes app to copy across to my blog on a laptop later, today it means going to my blog’s repository on GitHub.com and pressing .. This launches Visual Studio Code with my repository pre-loaded–I type away, I commit the change, and GitHub actions compiles the markdown and templates into the static site served for free.

surely apple can’t support this forever

The A10X chip inside this iPad Pro is still singing, all these years later. The latest version of iOS 16.4 beta is running like a champ and handles multitasking (up to 3 apps, plus quick notes).

Apple has dropped support for newer features on the device, like Stage Manager, but is staying true to it’s general cycle of supporting hardware for 5-6 years.

But that’s where I think this becomes interesting. I have an iPad Mini 4 from 2015, which in 2020, was showing it’s age and was rightfully dropped from software support at iOS 15 (released in September 2021). I don’t think I could honestly say that for this iPad Pro, coming up to age this year, I wouldn’t feel an injustice to support being dropped. Apple’s core business is selling it’s hardware, but maintaining longevity for devices builds consumer confidence and attachment to products (and yes, I am attached to this product). I do hold out hope that this device gets iOS 17 come September (or sooner via Public Beta), but if not - as long as recent improvements in WebKit provide some longevity (or the rumours are true that Apple will allow third party web-engines) - I’ll still be rocking this for a few more years to come.