Here is how literal Tim Cook was about the iPad Pro being “...a replacement for a notebook or a desktop...”
During an interview with The Telegraph, last year, in the wake of the 12.9 inch iPad Pro’s unveiling, Tim Cook went on record, once again, stating that the iPad Pro is a replacement for notebooks and desktop PCs. Tim Cook is very much about marketing, and it is natural to assume that such claim was nothing short of a sales pitch, or was it?
By all means, the message was directed at PCs other than Macs, at least on the surface, which was the official position during the keynote. Still, ever since Tim Cook decided to pitch the new tablet against an entire product category in which MacBook are, whether we like it or not, very much a part of, the dazzling question remains: what did he actually mean by that?
Since its first inception into the market, the iPad Pro has been a success among consumers, and especially business customers, which couldn’t have come soon enough, after a 20% fall in iPad sales numbers from previous years, worldwide.
Meanwhile, in seemingly unrelated news, the Apple MacBook Air is still in limbo, with no significant update, well into a brand new iPad Pro release, in the form of a 9.7 inch tablet aiming to replace the aging iPad Air 2.
It doesn’t take much to figure out that Apple is far too invested in its newest offerings than to waste resources in products that may no longer be relevant within two, maybe three years tops. By this token, when Tim Cook says that the iPad Pro is a laptop replacement, there is a good chance that the future of the iPad Pro is not about saving the iPad market, but rather rebuild it from the ground up, and turn it into something impossible to ignore by consumers and PC manufacturers.
Incidentally, the strategy, though bold, is bulletproof. The logic in undeniable: the iPad Pro is the most advanced tablet Apple has constructed, with features that challenge the notion of the typical tablet, and thrust it into laptop territory.
If indeed Apple releases a12.9 inch iPad Pro 2, what need would it have of a MacBook Air? The MacBook lineup is already rock-solid, with the existing MacBook Pro, and 12 inch MacBook, as the perfect duo for consumers and professionals. By that token, of course, the MacBook Air is still the most affordable option for students and customers on a budget, even without the Retina display, or 4K support, and it is still a MacBook in its own right.
This, however, doesn’t change the fact that the purpose of the MacBook Air has been long fulfilled, with the 12 inch MacBook being just as much as the lightweight, powerful, slick device that Apple needs to have in its laptop lineup, alongside the MacBook Pro.
With more advanced and powerful iPad Pro’s on the horizon, the MacBook Air stands little chance against a product with virtually identical price tag, and the versatility that Apple needs to counteract Microsoft’s own tablet PC.
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