Blog

Happy M4 iPad Pro launch day! Whether you’re picking one up for yourself or dreaming up what configuration to order, there’s plenty of M4 iPad Pro coverage this week.

The latest insight into Apple’s vision for the iPad is included in an interview with Apple executive Harry McCracken on Fast company. John Ternus and Greg Joswiak, aka “Joz,” talk M4, AI, OLED, and what makes the iPad a “Pro” machine.

Real talk

Perhaps the best and most telling line in the piece comes in a parenthetical comment from Joz:

(“I’m hesitant to call it a tablet because tablets are badass and iPads aren’t,” Joswiak clarifies.)

10/10, no complaints.

M4 power

Apple’s M4 chip is interesting for two reasons. For starters, it’s the first M-series chip to debut in an iPad instead of a Mac. Apple previously put M1 and M2 chips in the iPad, but only after they debuted in the Mac.

Apple also states that the M4 is the building block needed to drive the new iPad Pro’s tandem OLED display, another first for any Apple product. Jose describes the process for embedding the new display controller into Apple’s silicon:

“Our chip team was able to build this controller into the roadmap,” explains Joswiak. “And where they could put it was the M4.”

In the meantime, Ternus provides an overview of what the M4 does for the iPad Pro line:

“We’ve always had this vision of the iPad as this magical sheet of glass that allows you to interact directly with your content,” Ternus told me. “So what we were excited to do with this new iPad Pro is push the boundaries of how thin and light we can make it without compromise. We’ve got the best display we’ve ever put into an iPad. We’ve got the best performance we’ve ever put into an iPad. We haven’t given up on anything in terms of battery life or durability, and we think it just makes for the best iPad experience.”

Apple Pencil Pro

The M4 iPad Pro also debuts with a new set of accessories to take it further. A new aluminum Magic Keyboard with function keys and a larger trackpad is now available, and the more advanced Apple Pencil Pro is also with you.

Apple has moved the front-facing camera on the M4 iPad Pro from the top portrait side to the top landscape side. When Apple first made this change with the iPad 10 in 2022, everyone was curious as to how Apple could do the same thing for the iPad Pro since the Apple Pencil charges in that location. Instead of moving charging to another side, Apple changed the way the Apple Pencil Pro charges.

“We had to come up with a completely new architecture,” Ternus says. “We’ve actually reduced the size of the inductive charging solution—it’s less than half the size of the previous version—so we can put all these components together and make it work.”

Jose also says in the article that Apple “simplified the story of the Pencil,” though I’d argue that the phasing out of the original Apple Pencil and Apple Pencil 2 would have to happen for that to be completely accurate.

AI and Mac

Finally, the piece includes some insight into AI, the Mac, and what Apple thinks makes this M4 iPad Pro-worthy. From Joz:

“The fact is, the vast majority of Mac customers have an iPad and use both,” he says. “And a lot of iPad customers have Macs, or even some of them do.” [Windows] personal computers. You use the tool that makes the most sense for you at that moment. These are two different tools.

The argument for using both Macs and iPads for different tasks is not new, but I am struck by the statement that the majority of Mac buyers also own iPads.

This is a nice data point against the either/or argument. Still, it would be interesting to know the data behind the model breakdown. For example, do customers with older Macs have more high-end iPads? Are desktop Mac customers using mid-range iPads for mobile use? That would be fun to see.

On the subject of Pro-ness, Ternus has this to say:

But Ternus also rejects the idea that the iPad Pro is less than “pro” — a term he says isn’t defined by Mac.

“There’s a strange perception,” he says. “Maybe it’s the Mac people with their ideas of what a professional is. You’ve seen what the Procreate team has done with the Apple Pencil Pro. There’s no more professional drawing app in the world than Procreate – I mean, they’re the lifeblood of artists.”

Indeed, features like touch input, Apple Pencil input, and built-in 5G make the iPad different from the Mac to this day—even if there are a large number of tasks that can be accomplished on both platforms.

And about AI, we know the software story will come in a few weeks at WWDC. Meanwhile, Apple is building on its long history of including neural engines as part of both Apple silicon products and even Intel Macs for years:

I think we’ve been a leader in this area for quite some time,” Joswiak says, noting that AI is behind Siri’s “proactive” features that debuted back in 2015. “I think ‘credit’ might be the wrong word . But [we’re] just maybe giving customers the comfort of, ‘Don’t worry, we know what we’re doing here.'”

“We’ve been building neural engines since before the computer industry knew how to say ‘neural,'” says Joswiak. “And now they’re building neural processing units, hoping to get maybe 60 percent, in the next few years, of the computers they sell to be AI computers.” . . All of these iPads that we’re introducing with this advanced Apple silicon are pretty capable AI computers.”

You can read the entire material at Fast company. For more on the new M4 iPad Pro, check out our initial review roundup, Jon Gruber’s review shortly after the embargo lifted for a day or so, and expect more M4 iPad Pro coverage from 9to5Mac as we begin to get our hands on the new hardware!

Follow Zac: Twitter X, Threads, Instagram