In case you missed the news this week, Apple revealed some new tablets.
The updated iPad Pro and iPad Air are here. Both are significantly faster than before, with one being very thin and the other now available in two sizes. However, even the cheapest costs are the same as a 65-inch TV. A colleague of mine hit the nail on the head when he wrote a comment on Facebook: “It’s not just guitar players and kids buying iPads?
I have a bunch of tablets lying around in drawers at home. Children have grown up a long time ago and would never choose a tablet over a smartphone. Or the computer.
Every time I buy a new iPad (Android alternatives still aren’t as good) over the last 7-8 years it’s the same thing. I sit around for an evening or two and play around with the new updated apps. Maybe try an exciting game or tool. Trying to revive an Apple Pencil that always fails because that a particular pen is not compatible with that particular tablet. Last time I threw the pencil in the trash out of frustration.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
But it always ends the same way. Instead, I take out my computer or my phone and forget about the tablet. Until I’m about to go on a trip. The only practical use I’ve had for an iPad in recent years is when I’m on a plane. But in all honesty, a cell phone and reading glasses work almost as well.
Overall, I think the hype around touchscreens is dying down. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone dabbing a laptop screen with their fingers during a meeting. And colleagues who, for a while, managed their presentations and notes on a tablet, have long abandoned this concept. As even automakers begin to reintroduce physical buttons, we know that the touch-first era is coming to an end.
I’m a guitarist and I can definitely see a use for a tablet as sheet music. An expensive price, certainly. But would you dare to sit at the dance band concert with your 60 songs on a device? If he dies, you stand there completely lost like a fool and you’re very embarrassed. I also tried using an iPad Pro as an additional display in Logic, for the mixer. But an extra computer monitor is both better and cheaper, so the arrangement was a bit rudimentary.
Of course, there are niche uses for an iPad Pro if you’re a creator. But as an extended gadget and alternative to a laptop or smartphone, the tablet is dead in my eyes.
This article was originally published on our sister publication M3 and has been translated and localized from Swedish.
