Tech Tonic | Let's talk about the undisputed Apple iPad and your workflow

There is no longer a debate about the iPad as a content creation and productivity device. You must identify the apps that work for your workflows.

Do you really need an iPad? Or more to the point, can an iPad replace a laptop in your workflow? I’m past this debate, which is the result of my knowledge and experimentation. In my opinion, Apple’s generous helping hand with Stage Manager's multitasking parity between the iPad and Mac devices made things simpler for many users. The iPad has steadily (and successfully) positioned itself as the perfect laptop alternative for many. Irrespective of whether you have a laptop or not.

Clockwise from left: Updated iPad Pro, the Apple Pencil Pro, M4 chip, the new iPad Air and the updated Magic Keyboard (Official handouts)(HT_PRINT)

There’s the versatility with the attached keyboard, and the seamless morphing into a tablet. Display sizes have become larger, and you’re not hemmed in by a compact screen anymore as you struggle with a complex spreadsheet. Not to mention, the enhanced portability that’s more than welcome while travelling. A couple of years ago, the iPad Pro 12.9 weighed 682 grams and was 6.4mm thick. This week, Apple pushed those margins further, tipping the scales at 579 grams and 5.1mm in thickness. Now pair that with the new, slimmer Magic Keyboard, and you have a 13-inch or 11-inch form factor that’s around the same thickness as a MacBook Air.

Among other changes, Apple has really pushed the envelope this time around with the iPad Pro and iPad Air devices. The former ushers in the M4 chip, the first time ever an iPad had that privilege along with what’s likely to be an absolutely gorgeous OLED display, which the iPad-seeking world collectively willed into existence. The iPad Air product line gets a powerful M2 chip, and a 13-inch screen size option to go along with the 11-inch option. Missing in action, perhaps, was the iPad Mini (maybe that gets its own refresh later this year), though the true value proposition is still championed by the entry-level iPad that gets a price tweak.

That brings me to some interesting conversations I’ve had with friends and family who seek some help with deciding between an iPad, a laptop or a Mac for their next purchase. Android tablets have begun to figure in the conversation slightly, but don't convince anyone yet. There is often an argument that with this versatility, Apple risks cannibalising MacBook sales. That isn’t true. There is still enough differentiation between iPadOS and macOS to have their own streams of expertise.

For many of us, there isn’t even the scope of a question about viability or utility. An iPad simply works. Any iPad. For the reasons I mentioned earlier such as adaptability and flexibility. For creators, students, and writers. The business suits. For pretty much everyone out there. This can be credited to the similar levels of productivity on two different platforms, the iPadOS and MacOS.

My first reference point comes from schools. Around this time last year, I had the chance to visit Sitaram Mill Mumbai Public School, with none other than Apple CEO Tim Cook. It was a nondescript building which you arrive at after having driven through a bylane barely wide enough for a car. Inside awaits a sight you wouldn’t normally expect in a school. Children learn mostly on iPads instead of textbooks, their work projected onto a smart screen instead of the blackboard. They try many apps, working on assignments, their fingers gliding over the interface with focus and precision.

Then there were some thought-provoking discussions at last year’s Delhi Art Fair, where Varun Desai, a coder and music producer; Mira Felicia Malhotra, who is a visual artist and illustrator; and Gaurav Ogale is an artist, poet and writer, showed me some of the compelling work they’ve done using just an iPad.

Be it Desai’s installation titled "Dimorphism" which relied heavily on an iPad Pro’s 3D scanning through the inbuilt Light Detection and Ranging sensor (LiDAR) as well as the Nomad Sculpt app, or Malhotra’s work titled "Log Kya Kahenge" which saw her use Procreate, a graphics editor app, on an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. And Ogale’s mix of music and art created using Procreate and Adobe Premiere. This is the demographic that’ll upgrade to the new Apple Pencil Pro, in a jiffy. Because its gesture-based controls save them two steps to reach the same destination. That’s subjective utility.

Why I detail the apps and devices these creators used for pristine artwork for a simple reason – whichever iPad you have, the utility you derive from it will depend on the tools you use. That is, the apps you figure out are ones that work best for it. That’s even more true for apps made for specific tasks or functionality. Deciding between Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or Google Docs and paired properly with a cloud storage, could be the difference between whether an iPad can be a productivity device or not.

For a while, there were doubts about whether a third device between the smartphone and the computer is truly viable. Apple has singlehandedly dispelled those. No thanks to any of the Android tablets, though there’s a momentum shift being led by Xiaomi, OnePlus and Honor. The latest iPad updates simply drive forward that point. When the latest generation iPad Pros arrive in stores as the most powerful computing devices that Apple currently makes (more than any default spec MacBook or iMac), it underlines the importance of this genre.

We’re well past discussing whether the iPad can work for us. We’re now at a stage where you must identify the right apps, that draw on all the power, performance and versatility.

Vishal Mathur is the technology editor for Hindustan Times. Tech Tonic is a weekly column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice-versa. The views expressed are personal.