The one phrase every iPad Pro reviewer needs to stop repeating…

Every time the iPad Pro gets reviewed, we hear the same phrase repeated, lemming-like, by every reviewer: “The software is holding back the hardware,” or something to that effect. I’m not even saying they’re wrong, just that this feedback isn’t helpful.

One of the things that Apple teaches its retail employees is a concept called “Fearless Feedback.” It’s a set of simple guidelines that retail employees can use to provide each other with feedback that is both useful and non-confrontational. The key to Fearless Feedback is that non-specific feedback, whether positive or negative isn’t ultimately helpful. It may feel good to have someone tell you that you did a great job delivering a presentation at work, but it’s far more useful to add, “and here’s why…”

The same thing applies to negative feedback. I don’t mean to pick on a single reviewer, because nearly every journalist, blogger, and YouTuber has just repeated the above phrase, but here’s an example of what I mean: In The Verge’s review of the new iPad Pro, author David Pierce wrote the following in his list of cons for the new iPad Pro: “iPadOS just can’t keep up with the hardware.” I don’t have a problem with a writer having this opinion or expressing it. Heck, I can think of lots of ways that I want Apple to improve iPadOS. The problem is that Pierce never explains how iPadOS isn’t keeping up with the hardware or what Apple should do to rectify that problem. Again, in fairness to Pierce and The Verge, this was a review of new iPad hardware, not iPadOS itself. Still, this refrain gets used so often I worry many reviewers don’t actually have any thoughts behind this phrase. It’s just sort of a group think mantra amongst the reviewer class.

One exception to this phenomenon is Federico Viticci, who wrote an excellent, lengthy piecedescribing exactly what he’d like to see Apple change about iPadOS, and several of the current shortcomings he sees that hold iPadOS back for power users. Not at all surprising that his would come from Viticci, as he has been one of the biggest champions of the iPad and iPadOS over the years, but more pieces from tech journalists like this please!

Of course, many tech journalists and reviewers simply want Apple to port macOS to the iPad. While I love the iPad and macOS, I think something special would be lost if iPadOS were to be abandoned. What I think Apple will do is continue what they’ve been doing: make iOS, iPadOS, and macOS more like each other in ways that make sense, but remain separate OSes designed for separate device types. So with that in mind I hope they will continue to iterate on iPadOS and bring more of the advanced features inherent to macOS apps over to iPadOS in a way that is native to the iPad experience.

In the coming weeks I’m going to be spending more time on my iPad (this piece was written on an iPad Pro), so I can offer some constructive feedback ahead of WWDC, and then of course I’ll break down all of the relevant iPadOS new features introduced then.

How would you like to see Apple improve iPadOS?