But Apple has been in this direction for a while. In 2020, the magic keyboard brought extra port and a full trackpad to the iPad. Then in 2022, the company introduced external screen support, and finally, in the 2024 Update to iPad ProsThe webcam was moved into a portrait mode. But this year’s update really feels that it has reached the slope point. And Apple sold the premise in two really clever ways as well.
First, most iPad users may not even notice that the window function is there. Like many deeper iPad functions, a window is simply optional and hidden by default. Open an application in your iPad, and it is still default to a full screen. It seems that the average person will never notice the tiny rescue icon in the lower right corner of programs. This is an important drawing decision, as it retains intact the primary identity of the iPad as a simpler interface.
Second, Apple Coyly never called these new elements as Mac-like during the main note, instead only calling them “familiar.” It even spaced iPads and macOS except everyone in the presentation, careful not to draw attention just how similar these two products have become. Apple would never want to enter two of their products against each other, and has always implied that there is a reason for someone to own both iPad and Mac. But with iPads 26, let’s be real: this requires some serious cognitive dissonance to believe now.
I do not suggest that iPads will ever replace the MacBook Pro. The people who really need that extra activity will always fly to those more powerful Macs. But what about Apple’s much more popular laptop, the MacBook Air?
The iPad Pro and MacBook Air has always been confusingly close in price and specifications – of course, there is a danger of Apple to cannibalize its own products. I have no doubt that Apple will keep both as long as possible, but I feel more inclined than ever to compare the two straight. This is even more true, as the iPados update will even be available on the iPad and iPad mini base, when it will officially roll later this -autumn.
So, does this mean that a suitable union between iPads and macos in the works? Or how about a touchscreen MacBook? In the past, Apple has definitely stated that it has no plans to merge its operating systems. That was a statement that won greetings from the audience at WWDC in 2018. And yet, despite how far these concepts sounded seven years ago, almost everything seems possible at this moment.
From the new liquid glass interface to the Mac-like functions coming to the iPad, here are all the news of the WWDC main article from Monday.
