[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
How to correctly use a computer — Apple Charlesarthur / The Overspill : Start Up No.1269: the pandemic plan Trump's team ignored, UK gov tracking Londoners … Dave Mark / The Loop : Gruber: How to correctly use a computer Tweets: Tom Warren / @tomwarren : 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/... Daring Fireball / @daringfireball : [Very useful footnote I dropped in late last night.] https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Walt Mossberg / @waltmossberg : @reneritchie @Ahmedesslaoui19 @verge Agree. I have an iPad Pro and rarely use a keyboard with it. And that was true before I retired. Harry McCracken / @harrymccracken : The fact that the new MacBook Air and iPad Pro look more alike than ever in certain product shots is kinda deceptive. https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... Kontra / @counternotions : It's like we said on the iPad, if you see a trackpad, they blew it. Not. https://medium.learningbyshipping.com/ ... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : @Ahmedesslaoui19 @verge That computer nerds want their familiar paradigms? Sure, I guess. None of this stuff matters much for the much larger audience for which the iPad was designed and Surface still needs to address. Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi : 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. Dieter Bohn / @backlon : Disappointed to see that you can turn off Natural Scrolling in the trackpad settings on iPad. Natural Scrolling is clearly and objectively better. It's so obviously better that I'm sure this tweet won't be controversial at all. Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : Posit: What Microsoft was right about was how to make tablets into convertibles for traditional computer nerds. And the iPad Pro is Apple's way of subsuming that niche but lucrative market. But Steve Jobs/Apple was right about tablets. That's why the iPad owns that market. https://twitter.com/... Dan Seifert / @dcseifert : y'all, the trackpad support in iPadOS 13.4 is... amazing. this may be wildly overdue, but it's fantastic. Darin Dimitroff / @deezel : 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/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The trackpad debate lands at the end of a three-year arc: iOS 11 on iPad Pro was dinged in 2017 for lacking precise pointer input, and by late 2019 Apple had made keyboard compatibility near-universal across the lineup with the 10.2-inch iPad joining the Smart Keyboard-compatible ranks. With iPadOS 13.4, Apple is shipping the missing input layer — and updating iWork to match (trackpad and mouse support plus iCloud folder sharing).
Steve Sinofsky's thread reframes the move against the old 'toaster-refrigerator' convergence jab: rather than capitulating to the laptop form factor, he argues pointer-plus-touch is the latest step in PC hardware and software evolving together since their earliest days.
First-order effects
- App developers now have to design for two input models at once — touch and cursor — since iPadOS 13.4 makes pointer support a platform-level expectation rather than an accessibility afterthought.
- iPad Pro buyers get a credible laptop-style workflow without leaving iPadOS, sharpening the device's positioning against traditional notebooks.
Second-order effects
- Keyboard-and-pointer accessories shift from niche add-ons to the primary way premium iPads are sold and used, pushing accessory makers to treat iPad docks and keyboards as first-class product lines.
- Rivals in the tablet space face pressure to answer with equivalent desktop-grade input and multitasking or concede the 'tablet that replaces your laptop' segment.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds through Stage Manager in iPadOS 16 and the window-resizing, Files-centric direction of iPadOS 26, the tablet and notebook categories converge into one hardware market differentiated mainly by OS and input philosophy — vindicating Sinofsky's convergent-evolution framing over the capitulation reading.
The trend: iPadOS is progressively absorbing desktop computing paradigms — precise pointer input, windowed multitasking, file-system workflows — eroding the boundary between tablets and laptops.