Bigger and bigger tablets are starting to grab the notebook market
Compared with the first generation of iPad released in 2010, today's iPad has actually changed a lot, in addition to its own appearance, it is also divided into multiple product lines, covering different user groups, it can be regarded as redefining and creating the entire tablet market, I believe that many people have an iPad in daily use.
Of course, compared to Jobs's iPad as a supplement between PC and mobile phone, today's iPad seems to be getting farther and farther away from this idea, mainly because the current iPad needs to shoulder too many missions, in addition to the earliest positioning to supplement entertainment, it seems that Apple is planning to guide it in the direction of productivity and specialization, and even plans to replace the traditional PC products we are familiar with step by step.
The 14.1-inch super iPad is no longer an ordinary iPad
According to the current revelations, Apple is likely to release a 14.1-inch large screen iPad Pro at the spring conference next year, this machine will be equipped with a MacBook of the same M3 chip, as well as 8GB memory blessing, from the configuration point of view, it is almost flush with the MacBook product line. And the new iPad Pro not only adopts the same dynamic island design as the iPhone 15 Pro, but also uses a new generation of Mini LED screen, which further increases the peak brightness.
You may be shocked that the 14.1-inch iPad is a bit too big, but in fact, if we take a closer look at the entire tablet market, we will find that the screens of today's flagship tablet products are getting bigger and bigger. Although the 14.1-inch iPad is indeed a bit too big in appearance, if we look a little further and put it in the laptop market, then this large-screen iPad is actually far ahead of the laptop in terms of portability.
It can be said that since the release of the first-generation iPad Pro in 2015, this product line has been looking for ways to replace the role of laptops, taking the Pro in the name to the extreme. The product line has gone through 5 generations of development, and today's iPad Pro is quite mature in terms of design and software ecology, with a larger screen than a mobile phone and a portable laptop, which makes it favored by designers, photographers, studio personnel and other related professional users.
And,From the point of view of sales proportion,iPad Pro is also getting higher and higher,There are many consumers who regard iPad Pro as the first choice of tablet computers,Even if it is only used for daily entertainment,iPad ProHigh brush and high performance,It also makes it better than other similar products,iPad Pro has also boosted the vitality of the tablet market from the side。 Until now, the screen size of the iPad Pro is getting bigger and bigger, and it is obvious that Apple is going to "eye" the traditional notebook market and is ready to grab some users on it.
Gradually specialized tablet PCs are about to grab the notebook market
According to the data released by the research agency Canalys, iPad is definitely the king of the tablet market, the global tablet market shipments reached 33 million units in the third quarter of this year, of which iPad occupies nearly 4% of the market, which is still the result of iPad has not been updated for a whole year. It's just that the size of the tablet market is almost over, but the laptop shipments next door can still reach 51.2 million units in the third quarter of 2023, and Apple only has an 11% market share in this market, so it makes sense that the iPad is eyeing the notebook market.
It's just that the natural barrier that currently prevents iPad from "grabbing" users in the notebook market is actually productivity, as we said above, today's iPad Pro is definitely not bad in terms of performance and configuration, and the screen is almost as big as some small laptops. Apple has also launched magnetic keyboards, stylus and other related accessories for iPad peripherals.
But these accessories are really hard to use, not to mention the stylus, in addition to designers who have drawing needs, most users should still choose to use the mouse for office, and the magnetic keyboard in order to take care of the thin and light attributes of the iPad, whether it is the feel of the keys or the experience of the trackpad, it can only be used, and it is definitely not easy to use.
In addition to external accessories, the most important thing to solve in the tablet is the system problem, first of all, in terms of operation, the tablet is not very suitable for the office, because even today's iPad OS, multitasking and multi-window optimization are far less intuitive than Windows or even Mac OS. Due to some historical problems, the tablet computer in the past has not been adapted to the functions of split-screen and multi-task parallelism, which is indeed not comparable with traditional notebooks, so this set of system-level interaction logic has led to most people being reluctant to use iPad for productivity work.
Fortunately, it was previously reported that Apple will launch a special Mac OS system for iPad Pro, and the operation experience of using logic in all aspects will be similar to the current MacBook notebook, if you do a good job of adapting software and peripheral accessories, then iPad Pro does have a chance to fight with ordinary notebooks in productivity.
As for the current Android tablet market where domestic manufacturers are making efforts, the situation is a little different, compared with iPad, although Android tablets are also emphasizing the attributes of their own productivity tools, but they are still a little far from the iPad in terms of software adaptation, so Android tablets are actually finding another way, looking for breakthroughs in cross-platform collaboration, accessories and other related fields, hoping to meet the needs of some users.
Generally speaking, in the current tablet market, Apple led a group of tablet manufacturers, began to move towards the route of large screens by leaps and bounds, through such a strategy to avoid affecting users in the large-screen smartphone market, but to attract users who originally only planned to buy laptops for light office, and from the market performance and user feedback, such a strategy is actually successful.