At least the way Apple treats it, mobile operating systems are where user capabilities go to die.
You know all the professional software, on your desktop? Avid Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Adobe Premiere, Blender, that stuff? It doesn't run on iPad; not just because the developers are stingy and don't want to make a native version, but because the iPad is fundamentally limited in what it's software can provide relative to Mac. On top of that, you cannot distribute software yourself which relegates you exclusively to using Apple's provided runtime and storefront. It's an insular system that prevents new and exciting features or experiences from getting made without Apple's express approval and profit.
Or look at games. The iPad should be giving the Steam Deck a run for it's money; you've got a great GPU, strong single-core CPU performance and a big punchy display up front. Instead of playing Fallout: New Vegas (like any respectable person should be able to do in 2024), you're replaying Monument Valley and Angry Birds HD for the billionth time. Or maybe you just get frustrated trying to set up Delta or UTM and go watch House of Cards in resigned frustration.
The Mac is headed the same way, but at least there's a core audience of vocal whistleblowers pushing back against pointless software limitations. Apple is desperate to crush any methods of content creation or consumption that does not directly benefit them. To that end they have avoided adding professional features to their mobile devices to reinforce the content consumption loop and artificially inflate demand for the Mac.
I agree that a lot of this is true while disagreeing that it renders mobile a consumption platform. It’s outstanding for many productive tasks that “real” computers are either much worse at or no good for at all. Being in a tiny long-battery-life package with tons of sensors and radios opens up a lot of possibilities, many of which are in fact realized by the platform, even if it’s not a very good platform for writing custom programs on the same device. It’s especially great when you need the real world and computing to interact, “in the field” as it were.
I’d further agree that mobile’s used for far more consumption (or, presenting [multi-]media) than PCs! But I think that has more to do with PCs being a lot worse at those tasks than mobile devices (generally speaking), than mobile only being good for that.
I think there’s only a little overlap between the productive tasks real computers are helpful for, and what mobile’s good for, and that mobile also happens to be better for presenting media in most cases.
> The Mac is headed the same way
I’ve been reading this stated as fact since like 2012 (I became a Mac user—in addition to Linux and Windows, which I still use for some things, especially Linux, in 2010 or 2011). I’ve seen no sign of it.
> To that end they have avoided adding professional features to their mobile devices to reinforce the content consumption loop and artificially inflate demand for the Mac.
I do believe that’s some of it, but I also think a lot of the features certain types of professional want them to add are absent for the good reason that few people want them and they’d likely harm ux or security. Not all such features! But probably some.
> Instead of playing Fallout: New Vegas (like any respectable person should be able to do in 2024)
Well that’s just true, yes.
> Or maybe you just get frustrated trying to set up Delta
It’s one of the easiest emulators-with-game-library I’ve ever set up :-)
At least they do allow emulators now. Emulating a whole Nintendo DS is lighter on battery and faster to resume than nearly all the native iOS games in the App Store, which is just an absurd situation. Better overall game library, too.
Well we may have to agree to disagree. I abandoned Apple's ecosystem (Mac included) because the axe fell and my apps broke. First it was the OpenGL depreciations, which were annoying but manageable. Then 32-bit libraries quit loading and more than half of the Mac apps I paid for stopped working. Apple's advice to me was to pester the developers, and the developer's advice to me was to pound sand.
> It’s especially great when you need the real world and computing to interact, “in the field” as it were.
I agree in a certain respect. Parallel to this statement though, I also see another two things as true:
- Anything an iPad can do, a Mac can do better.
- Many things a Mac can do, an iPad can't at all.
Adding software functionality to the iPad would not detract from the few areas it excels in today. It is absolutely and entirely undeniable that the iPad's software capabilities pale in comparison to what the hardware can do. Apple has no reason not to give people what they want; except for the fact that it might stop people from buying Macs. Therefore they create an artificial (and entirely unnecessary) segmentation scheme that drives more people away than it attracts.
The apologism for Apple's blatantly anti-consumer practice is baffling. Do we just... pretend like Apple doesn't break things on a constant basis for the express purpose of pushing proprietary shitware? Should we smile and pretend like nobody misses OpenGL or wants Vulkan support? They're the largest company in the world by now, I should hope they've learned how to share their damn toys.
You know all the professional software, on your desktop?
My daughter has access to a computer with many of those programs if she wants to use them. I've showed them to her and what you can do with them, and offered to help her learn if she wants. She still does all her video, graphics and image editing on her phone or an iPad, because she genuinely prefers it. In her mind the only purpose of a desktop computer is gaming.
It feels like mixing idioms of a production (desktop) and a consumption device (mobile) and flailing at both. Not targeting a unique niche.