It’s the Future of Computing … Today! ⭐

Now that Apple has unleashed all the power lurking inside the iPad with iPadOS 26, it’s time to consider the impact that this shift will have on personal computing. My bet? It’s going to be profound.

? Resistance is futile

Steven Sinofsky discusses resistance to change in Hardcore Software several times, and as I read and re-read this book, I kept finding myself commiserating with his frustration. But when it comes to resistance, there are garden variety examples, like IT rejecting user interface changes and delaying upgrades as long as possible. And then there is the basement.

The basement is a subset of the technology enthusiast community, the people who test pre-release software for fun, engineers and the like. I’m part of that community, and so are you if you’re reading this. Yes, it sounds negative, but as Sinofsky writes, this term isn’t meant to dehumanize anyone. It’s just another term for fanboy. People in the basement “dislike and distrust change” as much as they love technology, and for obvious reasons: Any change that triggers a shift to something different, something new, something that is not their particular expertise, is a threat.

I see this all the time. I see it with AI. I see it with Snapdragon X and Arm for Windows. And I see it with the iPad now that it’s finally backed by a software platform that can take advantage of its powerful, modern hardware. It’s frustrating, not just because I see the limits of this worldview so clearly, but because the people who feel the strongest about these things are often bitter and irrational and won’t let it rest. They jump into the discussion about any topic they disagree with, where they keep repeating the same misinformation.

What this is, really, is a lack of empathy and an inability to acknowledge that most people don’t have their weird, super-specific preferences or needs. If Windows 11 on Arm can’t use one ancient printer that no one else even owns anymore than it’s crap and doomed to fail. If AI makes one high-profile mistake, then we should just give up on this work, ignore the successes and go back to the old way of doing things. The pushback I see against the iPad now is just as bad. But it’s also wrong.

? The future of computing, then and now

When I started the SuperSite for Windows in 1998, I called it “the future of Windows … today!” At the time, Microsoft planned to transition the mainstream Windows user base to NT via Windows NT 5.0, which was later renamed to Windows 2000. That didn’t happen, not fully, and the transition wasn’t completed until the next release, Windows XP, which came in Home and Professional versions. But it did happen. And it was quite exciting.

That was a long time ago, but it’s helpful to understand what personal computing was at the time. It was Microsoft and Windows. The Mac was circling the drain and had ceased to be relevant years earlier. Microsoft had beaten every competitor. And so for most people, most of the time, Window was where it all happened. Most people experienced the Internet and the web, digital music and video, new hardware advances and new software, including office productivity apps, and whatever else through Windows.

But then everything changed. Microsoft was so powerful and dominant that it finally found itself in trouble with antitrust regulators in the U.S. and then in Europe. The resulting legal battles were time-consuming and distracting, and a hobbled Microsoft, this company that had beat back every competitor on every level until that point, was suddenly vulnerable. This opened a door for companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google that would have been easily pushed aside in an earlier era. And it set the stage for new ideas and the far more heterogeneous personal computing market we see today.

In the decades since Windows peaked, we’ve seen the web and mobile emerge as more popular platforms. And now we’re on the cusp of another major transition with AI. And so the future of computing, as I will call it now, looks different today than it did over 25 years ago. The only thing that isn’t different is the resistance to these changes.

? The iPhone as the asteroid that killed the Windows dinosaur

Many years ago, I said that the iPhone was the asteroid hurtling to earth to kill off the Windows dinosaur. Of course, this was really about mobile platforms broadly, and so Android phones went on to play as big a role in that as the iPhone. But the shift to mobile, to smartphones and their apps, was just part of this transition.

By the time Apple announced the iPad in 2010, we were already well down the path of spending more time, of interacting with tech products and services more often, on phones than we did with PCs. By 2011, just four years after Apple shipped the first iPhone, smartphones were outselling PCs.

Since then, it’s never been close: Hardware makers sell at least 3-4 times as many smartphones each year as PCs, usage and engagement on mobile is out of this world, and PCs have been largely relegated to work. That word that many take to mean the opposite of fun. It was only a matter of time before someone—Apple or Google, most likely—created a more powerful mobile platform with a bigger screen that could hammer the final nail into the PC’s coffin.

? Which is better?

Microsoft—in its heyday and since—wasn’t unaware of these shifts. In the 1990s, it built up to NT, but it also built down to Windows CE, a consumer electronics-focused system based on Windows but targeting lower-end mobile devices and, eventually, set–top boxes and other non-PC platforms. Windows CE turned into Palm-Sized PC, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, and probably 18 other things, but it never gained much traction for all kinds of reasons. Microsoft tried, at least.

Coming at the world from a very different place, Apple did something similar with Mac OS X and then the iPhone. First, it built up to OS X by combining what used to be NeXTStep/OpenStep with the Classic Mac OS, much like Microsoft combined NT and Windows 9x to get to Windows XP. And then it built down to what we now call iOS, stripping out all the superfluous features a phone would never need and adding multi-touch capabilities and other features a phone would need.

That the iPhone was exponentially more successful than Windows Mobile is obvious in retrospect. But iOS was never as hobbled as Windows CE/Mobile, and it quickly became Apple’s most important platform. And so it became the focus. But it also became the basis for future platforms, including the iPad.

This paradox of history raised a lot of questions as it was unfolding. But to me, the big one was whether it was “better” to start from a simple platform (iOS) to build a more sophisticated product (the iPad), or whether one should start with something powerful but complex (Windows) and remove features to get to something simpler (Windows RT, perhaps, Windows S mode, Windows 10X, take your pick). Leaving aside what did happen, I generally fell on the side of making the simpler more powerful. With the caveat that for this to work, it would need to be handled with care, not thrown together and then ignored like Windows CE/Mobile.

And that is what Apple accomplished with the iPad, even with the first versions. Apple was able to navigate this “chicken/egg” problem successfully whereas Microsoft was not. But then Steve Jobs passed away. And Tim Cook did what he did. Meaning, not much. He let the iPad coast for over a decade because he could see that a more powerful iPad would cut into Mac sales and he’s a bean counter, not a visionary. But this is exactly the scenario Jobs would have embraced, as he had in creating the iPhone, a device type he knew would kill the iPod. What he understood was that it’s better to replace your platform with a new platform of your own than it is to allow a competitor to do it to you.

? There is another

To be clear, while I am focusing on the iPad here because it is the most complete package, that can and most likely will change. In the same way that Android phones emerged as a volume seller in a smartphone market in which Apple makes all the profits, the iPad has lots of competition. All of it based on Android, if we ignore Google’s 15 seconds of trying to make Chrome OS make sense on a tablet.

Android tablets have suffered from some important usability issues, and while there are all kinds of reasons for that, I’ll just boil it down to one: For reasons I can’t entirely explain, developers show up for Apple in ways that they just don’t with Android. This is why iPhone apps are often better than their equivalents on Android, and it’s why Android apps on tablets (or foldables) are still often just stretched out phone apps and not custom-tailored for the form factors.

But this will change. It is changing. Google has done what it can to give developers the tools they need to make it change. And we’re starting to finally see apps that embrace Android tablets (and foldables). At IFA 2025, I saw two Lenovo tablets with keyboard covers that would easily be mistaken for iPads, and they’re not alone. Samsung and other companies that matter in this space are pumping out new tablet designs all the time. And now that the iPad has finally been unleashed, the industry has a model to copy. And they will.

? Steve Jobs and the post-PC era

Whatever you think of Steve Jobs—and, for good reason, opinions vary wildly—he very clearly saw the future and moved decisively to make that vision a reality on multiple occasions. The iPad was his last home run in this regard, but it didn’t get off to a good start: With the initial device, we started comparing consumption devices (iPads and tablets) to creator devices (PCs and Macs) in a negative way, with those in the basement leading the charge, eager to undermine this scary new platform.

This incensed Jobs, as he had never seen the iPad as a consumption only device. And so for the second iteration, he made sure that Apple made powerful versions of its iWork productivity apps for the iPad. And he specifically discussed his vision of the iPad ushering in what he called the post-PC era.

And then he passed away. And Tim Cook happened. And so the revolution became an evolution. A slow-boil evolution. Ironically, Apple’s approach to AI mimics this conservative, insular strategy. But that’s another story.

There were moments when it seemed like Cook would get off his behind and fulfill the Jobs directive. There was the iPad Pro, which first shipped with an optional keyboard but no touchpad. There were software improvements, over time, including the introduction of a mouse cursor and touchpad support. But mostly, there were disappointments, so many disappointments.

And then, out of nowhere, they did it. They really did it.

Today, finally, the iPad is poised to fulfill the post-PC dream. And yet, nothing is perfect. I pointed out some consistency issues that customers will face when they migrate from a PC or Mac to the iPad yesterday. But there’s more. Especially if you’re looking up from the basement, as I am.

☝️ Touch is not ideal

This may seem like a strange one, but bear with me.

The iPad is a touch-first device, of course, designed from the beginning to be used by someone holding it in their hands. But when you add a Magic Keyboard or any similar keyboard/touchpad peripheral to an iPad, it turns into a laptop. Not a “sort of” laptop, but a real laptop. And that changes things.

We’ve had Tablet PCs in the Windows world since 2002, and we’ve had touch-first Windows tablets and laptops since Windows 8/RT in 2012. There are a lot of takeaways from these generational advances, and I have reviewed probably hundreds of laptops, tablets, and other related devices in the decades since this all started. And I have come full circle on touch.

My initial thoughts on multitouch screens on PC laptops were simple: This was additive, it didn’t hurt if you didn’t want it, and there were (and still are) clearly some people who really enjoyed this functionality. This is what I argued to Mary Jo Foley, who hated multitouch laptop screens, repeatedly.

Today, I very much prefer non-touch screens. I don’t want to touch the screen, and I don’t like all the fingerprints and smudges that seem to collect on these screens, even when you don’t use them that way. I interact with a laptop via keyboard and touchpad. That’s it.

And that’s kind of a weird issue with the iPad now. It’s a touch-first experience, as noted. It can turn into a laptop. But it’s a touch-first laptop. And while I love the platform and the apps, I just want to use it like a laptop when I’m getting work done. And what I sort of want, as odd as this may sound, is an iPad that’s a laptop that does not support touch.

I know. But it’s not as weird as you think. Some may view the iPad as some sort of toy, which is ridiculous, while others can’t see how this system would make any sense without touch. But this goes back to that view of taking something simple and making it more sophisticated. You’re thinking, that’s the Mac. But the Mac is a PC and it’s too complex. What I want is that happy middle ground between simple and powerful. The iPad can get there. The Mac cannot.

? We’re going to need a bigger boat

Tied to the above, my current iPad is an 11-inch iPad Air and it’s too small. Even the biggest iPads, the 13-inch iPad Air and iPad Pro, are too small. In the PC world, most laptops are 14-inches now, and I very much prefer 16-inch laptops. So what I also need, what many power users will need, too, is bigger iPads. 14-inches at least. 16 would be even better.

Oh yeah, and lose the multi-touch while we’re at it, as noted above.

? It’s the apps, stupid

Every company that makes desktop OSes has tried to adapt to the mobile world in roughly the same ways. Apple updated the Mac so that it can run iPad apps. Google added Android app support to Chrome OS. And Microsoft added Android app support to Windows before killing it off because Google wouldn’t bring over its Play Store ecosystem. All three have brought mobile-first features and user experiences to the desktop. And all three have worked on integration features that help users bridge their desktop and mobile devices. It’s nice typing a text message on a PC, for example, that will be sent through your phone.

Bringing mobile apps to the desktop is important because it closes a gap: Many modern apps are only on mobile, leaving those on desktop to manage multiple devices or, if they’re lucky, access web apps on the desktop when possible. But the iPad is a mobile platform and it already has all those apps. What it needs now is relatively minor: Thanks the platform innovations in iPadOS 26, apps that were impossible or difficult to make before are now possible. And so developers can bring more powerful apps to the iPad. Many are already in place and just need to be updated.

We will see this in office productivity apps. Creator apps, especially video editors that can now render in the background while the user does other things. In a very short period of time, all the major use cases will be amply covered. As we’ve seen with Windows 11 on Arm with Snapdragon X, all the blockers will fall to the wayside. Only this time, it will happen quicker. A lot quicker. And it will matter a lot more, to a much bigger audience.

But there is that final frontier. He says, looking in the mirror.

? Power users

To bring this discussion full circle, we’re already seeing the beginnings of the predictable arguments forming in the comments here and across the web. Power users, the name those in the basement very much prefer, are arguing that the iPad still isn’t a “real” computer. And the reason that’s so is that it doesn’t work with [insert name of app here].

It’s always the same thing with these guys. The thing is, the iPad already meets most people’s needs right now. It’s better than any Chromebook, and it’s in a different league than any low-cost Windows laptop. But there will always be gaps, and to pull out another Steve Jobs aphorism, his line about cars and trucks, maybe there always will be.

I’ve argued that PCs and Macs will basically become workstations (trucks) as the iPad (and Android tablets) fulfill the roles of PCs (cars). But I also think that these simpler new computers will eventually meet even more needs. And that getting developers and other power users on board is key. Today, you can only do lame little programming projects using tools like Swift Playgrounds on an iPad. But the next step, a step that would have already occurred had Apple not explicitly prevented it, is getting Visual Studio Code on the iPad as a real full–featured app.

What Visual Studio Code requires is the desktop version of Safari or its equivalent. And Microsoft would have already released this product if Apple didn’t purposefully cripple Safari on the iPad to prevent web apps from chipping away at its App Store profits.

Until recently, I was of the mind that this was a bridge we might never cross. But with the changes we see in iPadOS 26 and the innumerable antitrust issues Apple faces worldwide, I’m starting to think that it’s only a matter of time. Perhaps Apple will even bring Xcode to the iPad: After all, this would be a terrific platform to create apps for iPhone, iPad, and the Apple Watch. (And the Mac, if you’re OK using what is basically an iPad app on the Mac.)

I can already hear the complaints, of course. If we somehow got a full-featured version of Visual Studio Code on the iPad, some would complain that this was “only” good for web developers, which happens to be the biggest developer audience on earth. And if Apple ever released Xcode on the iPad, some will complain that it can “only” be used to make apps that run on Apple’s platforms.

Yes, yes. We get it. The world is moving forward and you’re stuck in the past. But you’re going to retire some day. And then forward progress can occur without you.

But you know what? I want progress to occur with all of us. I just want you to be open to change, even if you end up rejecting that change for yourself. I do use Windows, after all. So I’m right there with you. But I can see not just the promise of the iPad, but the reality of what’s happening. And even if I can’t or don’t want to use it myself every day, I know that it will meet most people’s needs right now.

You know how this works: The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. That doesn’t mean that the need of the few go away, just as it doesn’t mean that the needs of the many should be ridiculed or belittled.

Change is coming for all of us.