Should the iPad get a “Pro Mode” for more advanced keyboard and mouse workflows?

Let’s tease out the pros and cons.

In the latest issue of his Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman explains his idea for iPadOS getting a “Pro Mode” that would allow for more advanced multitasking and app/window management. The inherent strangeness of where the iPad sits between the iPhone and the Mac has provided endless fodder over the years for speculation about what Apple’s ultimate plans for the device are. Back in 2020 I was really bullish on the prospects for the iPad to become a new paradigm in personal computing. Partially this was because mouse pointer support and the Magic Keyboard really opened the door for some interesting new ways of interacting with an iPad. But it was also because at that time Apple’s Intel Macs had hit the kind of thermal roadblocks that really degraded the experience of using a Mac. Says Gurman:

When I had an Intel MacBook Pro, I found the iPad Pro to be my go-to device (I made this point in my first Power On column last year). That was because the infamous 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro was—quite embarrassingly for Apple and Intel—more of a cooking hot plate and airplane jet engine than a usable laptop.

I felt the same way with the 15-inch Intel MacBook Pro I was using at the time. To the point where I mostly treated my Mac purely as a desktop computer and used my 12.9-inch iPad for almost all of my mobile computing needs.

In response, Gurman revives a suggestion that has been put forth in the past: giving iPadOS a Pro Mode that kicks in when you connect an Apple Pencil and/or Magic Keyboard. Let’s go through his ideas and discuss them:

Mac-like multitasking, or the ability to run several windows at once on top of each other and next to each other.

A more dynamic dock where you can pin files and minimized apps. You also should be able to hold down icons for a couple of seconds to quickly glance at information.

First, consider that the iPad ranges from the iPad mini up to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. While the iPad mini does support Apple Pencil 2, it doesn’t have Magic Keyboard support. The iPad Air and the 11-inch iPad Pro do have Magic Keyboard support, but I’m concerned that they would be too small for the kind multitasking that Gurman envisions. So that would leave the 12.9-inch iPad as well as a hypothetical larger iPad (like, say, a 15-inch iPad) that could meaningfully take advantage of this imagined Pro Mode.

A larger iPad is possible, but the 12.9-inch iPad is almost unusable as a tablet as it is, and that’s why I’m currently skeptical that we’ll see a larger iPad. Of course I wouldn’t rule it out entirely, and I even wrote about such a device myself a couple of years ago.

It would be nice as well to see more dynamic widgets, letting you use them as mini apps rather than just information screens.

Miniature apps, so you can use things like a calculator, the music app, Apple TV remote and sticky notes without having to open an entirely new app and disrupt your workflow.

I definitely agree that there’s room for improvement with Apple’s implementation of widgets, both in iOS and iPadOS. Hopefully we see some changes there at WWDC this June. As for “mini apps,” we do currently have Slide Over multitasking in iPadOS where you can add apps to a floating panel that slides over from the right side of the screen. Basically you’re running an iPad app in “iPhone mode” in Slide Over, and you can have several apps there. It sounds like Gurman has something slightly different in mind, but I would argue that the basic concept is already there.

A proper desktop that lets you drop file folders, web links and more alongside applications.

Basically, I think what Gurman’s asking for is a Mac. In the piece Gurman admits that he doesn’t think Apple will port macOS to the iPad (and I agree with him), but he also says he thinks they should. I think that’s what’s really driving this piece. He wants a dock-able tablet device that runs macOS. I don’t think that’s the direction Apple is headed with the iPad.

I am sympathetic to wanting a more capable iPad that can truly replace a Mac or PC. I was there in 2020. What changed? Apple Silicon for Mac. Macs are no longer hot, loud, unwieldy devices. They’re quiet, cool, and incredibly fast. In 2020 I lamented the fact that I could run a Zoom meeting on my fan-less iPad Pro with little impact on battery life. At that time, on an Intel Mac, a 30-minute Zoom meeting would decimate my battery, and the Mac would get hot and sound like a jetliner taking off. The M1-family of chips for the Mac have given the Mac all of the power and efficiency that was solely iPad’s. And the 14-inch MacBook Pro is nearly the perfect expression of a laptop for me.

That’s why at the end of 2021 I ditched my 12.9-inch iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard in favor of an iPad Air. I no longer carry an iPad instead of a Mac for general mobile computing. I take my Mac where it makes sense to have a laptop, and I take my iPad Air with Apple Pencil 2 where a tablet device makes more sense. And with Universal Control, I can control my iPad Air using the Mac’s keyboard and mouse, so I no longer need the Magic Keyboard.

As I wrote back in 2020:

Based on the way Apple talks about the iPad, it’s clear to me that they see the iPad as needing to first and foremost be a tablet with multitouch as its primary input mechanism. All of the other input methods such as the keyboard, trackpad, and Pencil, are simply extensions of the iPad as a highly flexible “magical pane of glass” (Apple’s words).

That’s why I don’t see a bifurcation of iPadOS coming in the way Gurman hopes. I think if anything Apple is going to continue improving on what the iPad is at its core: the best tablet computer you can buy.