Apple released its long-awaited Apple Vision Pro headset just over a week ago, the memes have been fire, arrests have been made, and we have taken a strong stance, but now, will it signal the end for a pillar Apple product, the iPad?
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman thinks so. In his Power On newsletter, Gurman said that once the kinks have been straightened out in the Apple Vision Pro, the iPad might be null and void for consumers.
The Apple Vision Pro has been slated to possibly replace an iPhone or a Macbook, but an iPad is a brand new hot take, if I’ve ever seen one.
Gurman explained the iPad’s core use has evolved, first introduced as a bigger iPhone. Steve Jobs at the time described the iPad saying, “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”
But, 14 years later, the iPad is viewed more as a replacement for an iMac or MacBook. These days you see people using an iPad with a keyboard and its Apple Pencil rather than for its original use of being a better way to play Fruit Ninja.
IMO, I’m still very much considering getting an iPad to replace my crusty old MacBook Air since I use it only for watching TV and religiously doing the New York Times Crossword.
Gurman said the iPad has become the lost sheep of Apple’s product, and could perhaps one day be usurped by the AR headset.
“I believe the Vision Pro could instead cannibalise the iPad. It has the potential to provide a far better experience for the main jobs that Apple’s tablet was designed to handle. But don’t get me wrong, it’s still very early days,” he wrote.
In some instances, I agree with him, the iPad has lost its way and since 2010 and there are some great alternatives to the Apple tablet. However, I don’t see iPad users giving up their tablets and popping on a headset just to write some notes for a meeting or watching a movie on the plane. Despite these being very realistic scenarios.
But as Gurman said, it’s still very early days, 12 days since the release to be exact. So whether or not this comes true is yet to be seen.