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The iPad is a strange, wonderful, frustrating, and weirdly underachieving product for Apple.
Despite this, I’ve been there since the start – as far back as when the iPad really was just a big iPhone. Every year, and with each new version or accessory, I’ve attempted to work Apple’s tablet into my personal and professional life.
But it has never stuck. Even today, with the embarrassing number of iPads I have to hand, they still spend more time with their screens off than they do in action.
The exception is the iPad mini, which is my ever-present digital notebook, and that’s why, for me, it is comfortably Apple’s best-ever iPad – even if using it as a notebook is slightly elaborate for such an expensive device.
In 2023, a lot needs to happen for the iPad lineup to untangle itself.
Here are my top five wishes for next year.
1. Bring Final Cut Pro to the iPad
I’ll start here and get it out of the way because you’re probably bored of me waffling on about it. Equally, I’m conscious that the first item on this list is entirely selfish and relates to only a tiny percentage of iPad users.
I don’t care, though, because with every new video preview I see of DaVinci Resolve running on the Pad, I’m reminded of Final Cut Pro’s absence on that platform.
It doesn’t make any sense. Why put all of that effort into creating the best tablet on the market with “desktop-class” power and such a barnstorming screen only to wilfully allow a third-party developer to beat you to the post in such an obvious area of dominance?
It has the perfect chance to set the iPad even further apart from the competition by making it the ultimate mobile video creation tool, yet Apple is wilfully publicising a video editing app that’s a direct competitor to its own.
In 2023, we need to see Final Cut Pro – and at least a timeline for Apple-developed pro apps in other fields – on the iPad Pro.
2. Sort out the 9th/10th gen thing
Since claiming that the weird 10th-generation iPad doesn’t appear to have a defined market or user base, I’ve received lots of comments from people who believe the opposite.
For them, it’s the perfect iPad. It features an updated design, a bunch of interesting colours, and it’s just the right size. They’re not even that fussed about the lack of support for the second-generation Apple Pencil, nor the price.
This leads me to an inevitable conclusion: Apple needs to remove the ninth-generation iPad from the lineup.
However, that alone isn’t enough. The 9th-generation iPad is a wonderful device because it is such a cheap entry point into the world of iPadOS. For it to be removed and the 10th generation take its place, the latter needs a serious price decrease.
I have absolutely no idea how Apple can swing this, given its unbendable profit margins, but I do know that the bottom end of the iPad lineup is where the confusion starts for many buyers – but also where so much of its market resides.
3. Update the iPad mini
As noted earlier, the iPad mini (complete with the second-generation Apple Pencil and the awesome Paperlike screen protector) is the only iPad that plays a regular role in my life.
It’s not perfect, though. Next year, I’d love to see an updated version that takes Apple’s tiniest iPad from brilliant to a no-brainer.
The addition of ProMotion would remove that slightly unnerving feeling of sluggishness from the user interface (at its price point, I think the iPad mini is deserving of a high refresh rate screen). I’d also love a mini Magic Keyboard (minus the trackpad – that would be silly), and either a telephoto or wide-angle lens (preferably the latter) would make the iPad mini a not-daft alternative for your iPhone when it comes to photography.
4. Expand Magic Keyboard Folio compatibility
It wasn’t all bad news for the iPad in 2022. The Magic Keyboard Folio is, in fact, one of the best accessories Apple has launched in recent years.
It’s also a classic, silent admission of being trumped by a competitor. Microsoft got it right with the kickstand approach for the Surface; someone at Apple knew that and, mercifully, managed to push the same design through into a living, breathing accessory for the iPad.
That same person or, presumably, an internal Anti-Reality Distortion Field Consortium, also managed to get a function key row onto the latest official iPad keyboard.
They didn’t stop there, either. The Magic Keyboard Folio can also be effectively snapped in half, thus removing the keyboard and retaining that brilliantly functional kickstand whenever typing isn’t on the agenda.
There’s just one problem – the Magic Keyboard Folio is only compatible with the 10th-generation iPad.
I’d like it across the board next year, please, Tim.
5. Remove the 11-inch Pro (and update the Air)
This might be controversial, but I think one of the most confusing purchasing decisions people have to make when buying a mid-to-high-tier iPad is between the Air and 11-inch Pro. There’s a £230 difference between the two, which isn’t seismic when you’re already spending north of £500 on an iPad that you expect to last for several years.
The iPad Air is a brilliant device, but the 11-inch iPad Pro is unnecessarily hampered in the screen department compared to its 12.9-inch big brother and offers only marginal updates over the Air. It doesn’t even have the slightly more interesting colour options that come with the latter.
With that in mind, why not leave the 12.9-inch iPad Pro as the only top-tier device, remove the 11-inch version, and give the iPad Air ProMotion and base model storage of 128GB? You can even raise the price a little if you want, Tim (just not by £230).
And, no, it doesn’t matter if the Air retains the M1 chip rather than the M2 chip.
Wrapping up
I’m not asking for much, am I?
Most of my wishes above (bar those related to the iPad mini) are designed to make the buying process of a new iPad simpler than it is right now. I think we’re in danger of the lineup becoming a bloated, confusing mess.
Although arguably, depending on where your budget lies, it’s already at that point.
What do you want to see from the iPad in 2023? Get involved in the comments!
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