Apple’s pitch for the iPad Pro is a very in-your-face approach. The company told us on stage during its iPhone SE keynote that the iPad Pro is the perfect replacement for old PCs, taking a shot at Microsoft but also offending plenty of Apple customers who still have old Macs that operate just fine.
Leaving marketing tactics aside, iOS has evolved to a place where it can become the default computing platform for many users. At the same time, the iPad is not quite where some professionals would like it to be, even though the iPad Pro is the best and most impressive iPad update Apple has released in years.
One Apple customer who switched to a 12.9-inch iPad Pro when it launched last November recently tried going back to his MacBook after all this time. He discovered almost immediately that OS X feels like an old operating system that simply doesn’t offer the versatility of iOS.
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In a review called The Astonishing File System (via MacSories), Ben Brooks argued that OS X is the niche product, not iOS, and that in the coming years Apple’s iPad will become even more powerful than the MacBook.
“It’s like going home to your parents’ house for the holiday,” he said when describing his switch back to the Mac. “It’s home, and that’s really nice. But it’s also HOME, and that is really chaotic for most of us. So while it is always nice to visit home, you never want to really stay at home. You want to be back at your home.”
He continued, “That’s what the Mac feels like to me now. I really like Mac OS X and the MacBook, and would have no problems using them, but knowing what it is like to be on iOS only now — with that knowledge — there’s no way I don’t want to be on iOS.”
Brooks acknowledged that he’s not ready to give up the Mac entirely at this point, and there are tasks that are better suited for OS X. “This doesn’t mean I enjoy doing those things on a Mac — rather I find it easier to do those things on a Mac.”
But that might change in the future as Apple continues to improve iOS and make it an even better first-choice computing device.
Brooks argued that just like today’s kids can’t believe what Windows 95 was like, tomorrow’s children will have a tough time understanding why today’s OS X and Windows users were such control freaks when it comes to understanding the file system. He says modern computing shouldn’t be about knowing where everything goes or how to use Terminal. It should be about everything working properly without the user worrying about trivial details such as managing and handling the file system.
“Cars used to be more simple, and easier to fix, but harder to own and operate,” Brooks wrote, in support of his point. “Today cars are very complex, most people can’t work on them, but to operate and own a car is almost trivial.”
According to Brooks, the same shift is needed for operating systems. “Eschewing the idea that we need to be able to touch and edit every file, or we need a terminal for the OS. Instead, we need something which is overly complex under the hood, so it may be trivial to operate for everyone else,” he concluded.
