Rest in peace, iPad – the tablet is dead

In case you missed the news this week, Apple unveiled new tablets.

The updated iPad Pro and iPad Air have arrived. Both are significantly faster than before, with one very thin and the other now available in two sizes. However, even cheapest costs are the same as a 65-inch TV. A colleague of mine hit the nail on the head when he wrote a comment on Facebook: “Isn’t it only guitarists and kids who buy iPads?”.

I have a bunch of tablets lying around in the drawers at home. The kids have long since grown up and would never choose a tablet over a smartphone. Or the computer.

Every time I’ve bought a new iPad (Android alternatives are still not as good) in the last 7-8 years, it’s been the same thing. I sit for an evening or two and play with new updated apps. Maybe trying out a game or an exciting tool. Trying to revive an Apple Pencil that always fails because that particular pen is not compatible with that particular tablet. Last time I threw the pencil in the trash in frustration.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

But it always ends the same way. I get out my computer or phone instead and forget about the tablet. Until I’m about to go travelling. The only practical use I’ve had for an iPad in recent years is when I’ve been on a plane. But in all honesty, a mobile phone plus reading glasses works almost as well.

Overall, I think the whole touchscreen hype is cooling down. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone dabbing at a laptop screen with their fingers in a meeting. And colleagues who for a time ran their presentations and notes on a tablet have long since dropped the concept. When even car manufacturers start bringing back physical buttons, we know the era of touch-first is on its last legs.

I’m a guitarist and I can certainly see a use for a tablet as a music sheet. An expensive one, admittedly. But would you dare sit there at the dance band gig with your 60 songs on a device? If it dies, you sit there completely lost like a fool and get very embarrassed. I’ve also tried using an iPad Pro as an extra screen in Logic, for the mixing desk. But an extra computer screen is both better and cheaper, so the arrangement was a bit crude.

Sure, there are niche uses for an iPad Pro if you’re are a creator. But as a broad gadget and alternative to a laptop or a smartphone, the tablet is dead in my eyes.