Federico Viticci did an outstanding job cataloging ways in which getting work done on your iPad is still difficult in 2024. What’s most frustrating about this list is that many of these points could have (and were) written about ten years ago.

It is frustrating when you consider the untapped potential of the iPad. With different stewardship, it could have been so much more by now. I keep coming back to the conclusion that the iPad didn’t blossom into something more because Apple is not interested (or interested enough) in doing that. Even more so with the recent Mac renaissance, Apple, through its actions, is saying, “The iPad is for people with simple tasks who don’t want the complexity of a Mac, and the Mac is for all that complex work.” If you just look at the sales spreadsheets, you could argue that that is the right approach.

But as an Apple fan, that isn’t satisfactory to me. Apple has often been the tech company with both the vision and temerity to blaze a new path. With the iPad, all the pieces are there. The hardware is innovative and cutting edge, but when it comes to software, Apple just doesn’t seem interested in taking the training wheels off of iPadOS.