[Thread] Trackpad support for iPads is not Apple's capitulation, it is a part of a convergent evolution of PC hardware and software from its earliest days
Apple unveils new iPad Pro with breakthrough LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support in iPadOS https://www.apple.com/... // The “convergence” everyone has been waiting for? A “2 in 1” or a tablet or a toaster-refrigerator? Did Apple capitulate? Some context on evolution of devices... 1/ https://twitter.com/...
@stevesiSteven Sinofsky
Context & Ripple Effects
The trackpad announcement lands three years after reviewers concluded [[a:920186|iOS 11 on iPad Pro fell short as a laptop replacement precisely because it lacked precise pointer input]]. Apple is answering that specific gap on its own terms: the new iPad Pro ships with LiDAR and cursor support in iPadOS, and the company is updating iWork for trackpad and mouse input in iPadOS 13.4 the same week.
@stevesi's thread reframes the move against the 'capitulation' charge: this is convergent evolution of PC hardware and software, not a copy of anyone else's playbook. The groundwork was already laid when every current iPad except the mini became Smart Keyboard-compatible in 2019, making precise input the logical next layer.
First-order effects
iPad Pro buyers gain laptop-class pointing precision overnight, directly closing the 'laptop replacement' deficit critics identified in 2017.
App developers must now design for cursor-and-touch dual input, starting with Apple's own iWork suite updated alongside iPadOS 13.4.
Second-order effects
With pointer support in place, pressure shifts to Apple itself to keep iPadOS distinct from macOS — each added capability raises the question of what still separates the two product lines.
Keyboard-case and accessory makers gain a larger addressable market as cursor support makes keyboard-equipped iPads viable primary machines for more users.
Third-order effects
The thread's convergence thesis has since been validated by Apple's own roadmap: iPadOS 16's Stage Manager and iPadOS 26's freely resizable, movable app windows extend the same arc from touch-only slab toward PC-style windowing.
If the pattern holds, tablets and laptops stop being separate categories defined by input method and become points on one continuum of the same software platform.
The trend: iPadOS is progressively absorbing PC-style input and window management, eroding the boundary between tablet and laptop as distinct computing categories.
PPS/ Spent time using Magic TrackPad2. Don't be confused—this is not bolting an old school idea of a mouse on iPadOS. More like “Mouse 3.0” and an evolution of the macOS trackpad. Much more to think about than “precision pointing.” Bigger than IntelliMouse Wheel 25+ yrs ago.
21/ Adding a trackpad to iPad was done in a way that reimagined not just the idea of a pointer, but in the entire package—hw & sw. That's what makes this interesting. To think of it as capitulation would be to do so independent of how computing has evolved over decades. // END
15/ PC Servers started to add attributes of mainframes. At first this seemed totally crazy—redundant power supplies, RAID, multi processors, etc. THAT was crazy stuff for those $1M mainframes. Pretty soon at h/w level telling a PC Server from a MF became a vocabulary exercise. ht…
Apple 8 years ago: “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but it won't please anyone.” Apple in 2020: the iPad is now a laptop https://twitter.com/...
As a follow-up to my question about whether third-party trackpads can support iPadOS' new multitouch gestures, looks like the answer is “yes”. Logitech just announced an iPad keyboard with a multitouch trackpad. 🙌 https://www.macstories.net/... https://twitter.com/...
The headlines feature on the iPad Pro itself are a new processor and a LiDAR camera. And Apple is still very much Apple: “It works at the photon level, operates at nanosecond speeds.” Yes, that's how lasers work 🤣
Evolution. Apple has evolved (or better is still evolving) the laptop. A device that has it all: Cellular, GPS, back cameras, AR sensors, TrueDepth cameras and touch/pencil/keyboard/trackpad input. Pointless backporting to the Mac https://twitter.com/...
6/ The first one of these transitions I remember is the introduction of portable computers. Out of the gate, these were way less powerful than “PCs”. The debate over whether a portable can “replace” a “PC” was in full force. https://twitter.com/...
2/ Hardware evolves just like software but we don't often see it the same way. We're used to talking about the cycle software bundling and unbundling, but hardware does the same thing. Every new generation of hardware begins this cycle anew.
Can't stop thinking that Microsoft had it nailed with the Surface hardware-wise. The OS had to be rooted in a modern, touch-based metaphor though. Apple's best decision was making a big iPhone and not a touchscreen Mac first, in retrospect. https://twitter.com/...
Right now, the LIDAR on the new iPad Pro seems like a major hardware addition without any real new functionality to take advantage of it. I imagine we'll see actual features for it with iOS 14 and when the iPhone gets it.
I'm also surprised they are launching this iPad Pro with an A12 rather than an A13 or A14. Will be interesting to see how it compares to the speed of the current iPad Pro.
This is a beautiful thread about how (in general) new platforms almost always reimagine the best parts of the platforms that came before. https://twitter.com/...
This video just convinced me that as long as #MicrosoftOffice gets support for the new trackpad it's bye bye MacBook for me. I was already using the iPadPro for half the time https://www.youtube.com/...
The @verge has a video ft. Craig Federighi showing how TouchPad support works in iPadOS and gotta say I'm excited about this. It looks very thoughtfully implemented for the tablet experience. 🤤 Can't wait to try this with Zoom, Speak Screen, etc. #a11y https://www.theverge.com/..…
In a rare appearance outside of #WWDC, Apple's Senior VP of Software Engineering in a brand new video with @TheVerge shows off #iPadOS 13.4 on the brand new #iPadPro equipped with the Magic Keyboard and Trackpack. Watch the legend himself here: https://www.theverge.com/... https:…
16/ And here we are today where server to stripped the very elements rooted in PC (like monitors and keyboards!) Guess what? That's a mainframe! In twitter, this would be: Mainframe, you've invented a mainframe.
18/ So here we are today with an iPad that has a trackpad. Many are chuckling at the capitulation that the iPad was never a real computer and finally Apple admitted it. Laptop, Apple has invented the laptop.
13/ When first PCs began to do server tasks, they did those in an entirely different way than mainframes that were servers of the day. They used commodity desktop PCs—literally the same as a desktop running in an office. That was the big advantage—cheap, ubiquitous, open!
20/ The PC server everyone uses in the cloud today is no mainframe. It is vastly cheaper, more accessible, more scaleable, runs different software (yes people will fight me on these in some way, but the pedantic argument isn't the point).
7/ Quickly the form factor of portable evolved and with that came all sorts of labels: luggable, portable, notebook, desktop, sub-notebook, and so on. This continued all the way until the introduction of “ultra-books”. If you're a maker these labels are annoying at best. (1987) h…
10/ Then we wake up one day and look at the “new” form and realize it seems to have morphed into the old form, capabilities and all. All along the way, the new form is editing, innovating, and reimagining how those old things should be expressed in the new one.
11/ These innovations can change software or hardware. But this is where hardware devices like USB come from—the needs of the new form dictate new types of hardware even if it solves the same problem again. #innovation.