My First ThoughtsWhen I heard that there could be a much larger iPad than the current version I thought someone was messing with my mind. However after some serious consideration perhaps it is not as silly as my little mind is willing to accept. The iPad as it stands has gone through many changes in specification and 2 changes in body size. Arguably these have been received quite well by the public at large, but not every iPad fits every user. Let us now look a little into what we might benefit from this 'Pro" iPad if it ever appeared on our store shelves.
What Could it Look Like?Well reports on this are somewhat peculiar but they do seem to agree around the 13 inch display size for any professional grade iPad. Would that not be just stunning to behold. Imagine Apples wonderful iPad in all its glory but stretched to the size of one of their full MacBook screens. It would be majestic in my opinion. I am a big fan of these huge touch friendly panes of glass that we see in great science fiction films. We now have them after a fashion in the iPad Mini. lets go bigger with it.
A rather lovely concept video came from SET Solution on the possible iPad Pro and what it believes we could be dealing with. Check it out here.
I would note that during this video there is a section which shows a man holding this huge iPad in bed, he does look very silly. Also what if he fell asleep holding it, that would hurt a lot as it slaps him in the face. Something I know a little about from using my iPad Mini in bed.
Artists Might Like ItAs we know a bigger screen makes for more room to move and allows more creativity. So what do we think the creatives amongst us will think, I suggest very favorably. I do not think this iPad or any iPad will entirely remove the pen and paper but we are heading towards equality between the two areas. Artists need room on their drawing pages to move their tools around and a 13inch display is a very nice start. I think that presently neither iPad offers a great experience for digital artwork. Though I have seen some excellent work done by artists on an iPad. For an amusing piece of nontraditional artwork check this out. Simone Wilson of the LA WEEKLY Blogs site shows us what cats can do with an iPad at a local cat shelter.
PowerfulWell that remains to be seen I guess. When you want to make a Pro spec piece of hardware you need it really have a seriously big engine in it drive it. Or you are flinging time and effort down the drain. Pro users have big demanding needs and usually even bigger wallets, so Apple if they are wise will choose to make such an iPad seriously powerful and not go light on the technology within.
One would hope that the power they would give such an iPad Pro would at least equal or surpass the MacBook Air. I doubt they would make an iPad to take sales away from the MacBook Pro, that would seem very silly indeed. Apple has been for a long time paying a lot of attention to the consumer market and letting the Pro user sit idle. Maybe now it is time that they got some love from Apple in the form of new hardware. Yes I am aware of the Mac Pro, but shouldn't the perfect desktop have a perfect tablet?
InsightsFor some additional reading on this matter I would strongly advise taking a look at a piece by Richard Goodwin on Know Your Mobile. His article wonderfully dissects the likelihood of an iPad Pro and the various sources hovering around this subject. It was published on 18th February 2014 and can be found here.
ConclusionI am not inclined to rush out and buy a new iPad Pro if one appeared tomorrow. Mainly because I am not a Pro user, I am a casual user that enjoys tablet computing but is not willing to switch over entirely. However I would appreciate a larger display. Each version that comes out, I hope they inch closer to 10 inches with the same specs as the current iPad Mini. But the iPad Pro really could do well in the right circles and appropriately priced.