In an interview with The Independent, Apple’s marketing chief Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak, and its hardware chief John Ternus spoke about the latest iPad and Mac updates.
Andrew Griffin pressed both executives about what the future of the Mac and iPad will hold, now that the company’s M1 chip now powers the newest iPad Pro and Macs. Will these products ever unify?
“There’s two conflicting stories people like to tell about the iPad and Mac,” said Joswiak. “On the one hand, people say that they are in conflict with each other. That somebody has to decide whether they want a Mac, or they want an iPad,” he added.
As for Apple’s supposed future plans to merge Mac and iPad into one? Joswiak dismissed those claims.
“Or people say that we’re merging them into one: that there’s really this grand conspiracy we have, to eliminate the two categories and make them one,” explained the Apple marketing chief. “And the reality is neither is true. We’re quite proud of the fact that we work really, really hard to create the best products in their respective category,” he said.
Joswiak said, “Customers agree with us, right?” pointing out, “and they’re voting with their pocketbook, right? Both these categories have grown, but iPad and Mac have greatly outgrown their category. And so that’s what our strategy is: create the best product of both.”
Ternus also chimed in to say, “We don’t think about well, we’re going to limit what this device can do because we don’t want to step on the toes of this [other] one or anything like that.” He added, “We’re pushing to make the best Mac we can make; we’re pushing to make the best iPad we can make. And people choose.”
The hardware chief said there are many people who own both Mac and iPad and workflows that are specific to each device, which they prefer.
“But we’re just going to keep making them better. And we’re not going to get all caught up in, you know, theories around merging or anything like that,” added Ternus.
In regards to the massive power of the M1 in the iPad Pro, Joswiak says they are future-proof.
“And what a great thing for our customers, by the way, to know that they can buy a system today that still has headroom. It isn’t going to be immediately obsolete, which is often the case if they buy an inferior product – it’s obsolete from the day they bought it. Whereas, you know, iPad Pros continue to have headroom,” said Joswiak.
Recent articles have come out demanding Apple bring macOS to the iPad, now that both have the same computational power with M1. The Verge today published a story with a scathing title, “Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards.” Ouch.
The 2021 iPad Pro now lists RAM specs, noted as 8GB or 16GB for the 1TB and 2TB storage tiers. That’s a lot of “headroom” as Apple puts it and, as the company says, iPad and Mac are remaining separate.
Pre-orders for Apple’s new iPad Pro models kick off on April 30, 2021.
