Apple's marketing head Greg Joswiak and hardware chief John Ternus on M1 chip in iPad Pro, Liquid Retina XDR display, Center Stage camera capability, and more
TechCrunchMatthew Panzarino
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple had just detailed the M1-based iPad Pro refresh, including Thunderbolt, 5G, expanded storage and a mini-LED screen on the larger model. This interview explains how Apple wanted those upgrades to fit the iPad Pro rather than signal a merger with the Mac.
That distinction was explicit in the executives’ separate defense of keeping iPad and Mac product lines apart. Later coverage of an M4 iPad lineup and Apple’s “AI PC” framing shows the same leaders continuing to treat high-end iPad silicon as a distinct product strategy.
First-order effects
iPad Pro buyers gain Apple’s M1 chip alongside the Liquid Retina XDR display and Center Stage camera capability, making the premium tablet’s hardware proposition substantially broader.
Apple gives Greg Joswiak and John Ternus a public forum to define the M1 iPad Pro as an iPad advancement, while preserving a separate role for the Mac.
Second-order effects
Apple’s common-chip strategy extends M1 across iPad Pro and Mac without combining their product lines, forcing its own product marketing to differentiate devices by use and form factor rather than processor family.
The larger iPad Pro’s display upgrade and higher starting price of $1,099 for the 12.9-inch model sharpen the split between Apple’s premium tablet configurations and the $799 11-inch model.
Third-order effects
If Apple continues to bring successive high-end chips to iPad Pro while maintaining the Mac/iPad divide, its device lineup becomes a durable strategy of shared silicon paired with separate computing categories.
The later M4 iPad discussions suggest Apple can update the performance narrative around the iPad without abandoning that category separation, including as it frames the device around AI.
The trend: Apple is using common in-house silicon to raise iPad Pro capability while preserving a deliberate separation between tablet and Mac product lines.
@charlesarthur Hunting them down so that their lawsuit against Apple (which alleges that Apple purposely allowed scam apps to go after developers that Apple refused to acquire) is somehow made stronger.
@paulbailey Irony is there is one group who thinks Apple stops them making enough money (most developers, esp Epic) and others who think Apple doesn't stop enough people making money (those spotting scammers).
“Apple is offering not only the most powerful CPUs but also the most power-efficient CPUs on the market... it's also the product of more than a decade of work building its own architecture & silicon.” Acquiring PA Semi and betting was a watershed moment.
1. Submit an app update that includes the code for the circumventing behavior, but disable it via a feature toggle while Apple is reviewing the app. 2. Upon Apple approving the app update, change this feature toggle to enable the circumventing behavior. https://en.wikipedia.org/.…
“How crazy is it that you can take a chip that's in a desktop, and drop it into an iPad,” It's actually the other way around, but don't you just love Apple's marketing? 😉 https://techcrunch.com/...
A lot of the iPad Pro's new features are academic until they get leveraged by pro suites of apps or developers. but Center Stage is going to immediately hit at the heart of consumer use cases and I think people are going to go bonkers for it https://twitter.com/...
Tons of gold quotes about the focus of the iPad in this story - everyone interested in the device should hear what Apple executives directly say about their decisions around it https://twitter.com/...
I interviewed @gregjoz and John Ternus (wisely not on Twitter) about the new iPad Pro, its M1 chip, Liquid Retina XDR display and that stuff about merging the Mac and iPad https://techcrunch.com/...
The “same” M1 chip on every Apple device was the real announcement. “The choice of chip inside the system has become irrelevant within a given product generation” https://twitter.com/...