New iPad has M1 and Thunderbolt.
I can’t be the only one thinking if Ableton, etc. runs on the M1 MacOS, it’s not long before running on M1 iOS. Seems like this ecosystem is coalescing.
Thoughts? I realize DAWs aren’t exactly touch interface ready on MacOS, but iPads are capable of touch and keyboard mouse input.
Incoming “M1 iOS broke all of my legacy apps” posts.
I don’t think “the conjunction” will happen. I believe Apple will keep two product lines for long enough to surprise you. One will continue the “desktop” workflows and macOS the other will continue the “handheld” workflows and iOS.
If there is a conjunction, it’ll happen in two places, which will seem like one place at the UX layer. The UIs will carry alike style and behaviours, so that you have a consistent experience of “the Apple Way” across your devices. The UIs will downplay the mechanical differences and share visual metaphors for what data looks like, how you interact with it, and where “computation appears to happen. Your “desktop” will look increasingly less like a desk top and more like a window into scintillating infinite void.
The other point of conjunction will be where the platforms hand off to iCloud, Siri and whatever follows them. There’ll be a seamless blend of local and remote compute, secured and anonymised as far as Apple can manage, and you wont notice as you move from situation to device. It will appear as if “the Apple Way” is woven through as much of your day to day life as Apple can get you to buy into.
And Google and Samsung will make bad copies of it that don’t work as well, or that work better but sell you out to advertisers.
How do you figure? Still iPadOS, and still same arm architecture.
I don’t think it will be as bad as we think.
I still don’t see the point of the pro for audio (except usbc, but it’s annoying that isn’t universal across the board already)
More tongue-in-cheek than anything. Though it seems like Apple makes changes with little to no regard but for its own ecosystem. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some legacy apps be orphaned by a change to the M1. It’s a “wait and see” approach I suppose. I’ve no motivation to upgrade as my 2018 Pro serves me very well and likely will for a little while. 
Probably wont break any apps, but watch it break a PX5 
Sir/Ma’am,
Nobody needs this kind of bad attitude around here >.<
The big issue is about setting plugins compatibility with the MacOs version, there’s a ton of plugins out there and god knows how much of them will be compatible someday.
They look impressive, but it can’t do much more than the old 2018 iPad Pro. The iPad’s limit isn’t hardware capability, but a lack of pro software.
It’s like putting a Ferrari engine on a bicycle. Even Adobe’s demos yesterday only mentioned faster imports to Lightroom and Photoshop.
Maybe iOS 15 will make it easier to add and use more powerful software.
I really think we are going to witness something like a conjunction in the foreseeable future maybe as soon as this year‘s wwdc. Apple could have named the chipset for the new iPad any way they liked, let’s say A14x, A blabla whateva, fact is they chose to call it M1 just as their computer chips. M1 is just an odd choice if you try to keep the iPad and the Mac separated. This and the fact that iPadOS apps are already running on macs seem to be a very strong hint to me that MacOS apps are coming to the iPad. Maybe not all of them and but hopefully some of our beloved DAWs.
didn’t someone already hack the previous ipad pro and put BigSur on it? i’m sure the same will happen w/the new iPad pro.
also, M1 in the iPad Pro probably means the next version of apple silicon will be the MX or whatever they’re calling it and will be powerful enough to distinguish it from the M1… even though the iMac just came out also w/the M1.
conjunction is actually already here for years.
Apple laptops & desktops are made just like iPads for years — unserviceable by user, with as much component integration as possible, so there’s nothing to disassemble.
iPad is basically a mainboard + battery + screen.
Apple laptop is basically the same + keyboard/touchpad.
Apple desktop is basically the same as laptop, but without battery.
latest generation of Apple devices is more unified than ever – that’s all the difference.
It is all part of the Apple marketing strategy- releasing M1 on iMac and iPad Pro allows Apple to sell all 5 products without one being preferred to the others.
the new product line is all equipped with M1.
Why wouldn’t they put an M1 chip into their new tablets? I mean as it works or both mobile and traditional computer they can ditch other production lines and concentrate all efforts to the M1, making production much cheaper and leaner.
Man… can you imagine the logistical and efficiency gains Apple achieve by having the same chip in all their devices? It’s nuts. You could imagine they almost wiped out entire departments that dealt with dealing with Intel specifically. On a global supply chain level, the gains must be insane. Just this change in itself must have made Apple so much more cash. It’s crazy.
The new iMacs are a sweet shift, but I’ll wait for the M1X before getting another machine. I could really use going back to a nice all in one for audio work, and having all that screen real estate.
iPads though, I have no real need for the Pro models. The Air is tempting as a kitchen device or something for tunes and media / browsing while cooking.
But I can see how the iPad provides an experience that you don’t get on a Mac. Even something like 5G - they kinda make you use tethering on Mac to have that feature. I always wondered why they didn’t put a sim slot on a Mac - if an iPad can have it, why not the Mac.
Whatever your feelings are about Apple, you got to hand it to them: they are playing this game better than anybody.
They’re converging the manufacturing pipelines, but they definitely won’t converge the product lines. There’s no usability benefit to customers, and there’s no business benefit to Apple. They’re more likely to make a new form factor and a new deviceOS than they are to drop one of macOS, iOS, or iPadOS.
I agree with both of you, Lalai’s point on why would Apple call the chip on the iPad Pro the M1, even if it was exactly a M1 they could keep it quiet and bin it as a “A14Z” or any other nomenclature to keep them apart, they chose to call it M1 and match the Mac line.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, I’m on the camp that we will convergence happening as you described, dual-pronged and closing the ecosystem in one single application experience, look-and-feel changing tailored to the type of device you are using the application. Personally it’s an excitement development in personal computing, unsure of how well it will be done and adapted but a seamless experience between my Mac, iPad and iPhone would be the perfect ecosystem for me, both professionally and personally, all my hobbies and my work would have much improved workflows.
It will take time, the best part of this decade I assume.
They’re “converging” the UI to a degree. I think of it more like “creating an Apple design system” rather than “converging the OSs”. Buttons, pop-ups, application frames, pickers, scrolling content and other “compute surfaces” will look increasingly similar across Apple devices and OSs. The modes of interaction will vary a little depending on your hardware and circumstance, but the UI will look similar so you have a consistent expectation of the effect of your interactions.
All this said, I was very surprised they didn’t round the corners of the new iMac screens.
Wow. This went off the rails.
Let me clarify:
If third parties make software for MacOS and the M1 chip… the leap to iOS on the same chip seems like an easier developer situation for potentially running it on both platforms.
Really, all I want is Ableton on an iPad. 