The tech giant, Apple recently came up with an iPad Pro advertisement -- "What's a Computer?" In it, the company enthusiastically praises the superiority of its new a high-end tablet which has been designed with corporate users in mind. It also showcases how by combining it with a keyboard, iPad can act like a notebook.
Even on Apple's website, it pitches the iPad Pro as a computer, calling the device a "Super Computer."
To most of us Apple's argument, for all obvious reasons, might come across as somewhat absurd. For iPad, which launched for the first time in 2010, has long been seen as a tablet, and now the company wants its customers to believe that one of its models is really akin to a computer.
And winning the argument for Apple would be difficult, Fortune magazine reported. As iPad Pro runs on the same mobile operating system in iOS that is found elsewhere in iPad mini, iPad Air 2 tablets and iPhones. While Macs run on a different operating system which is designed specifically for desktops.
Apple's pitch for iPad Pro is seen as an effort to overcome the shortcomings of its troubled tablet division whilst luring a growing customer base which seems intrigued by two-in-one hybrid devices.
While most hybrids run on Windows and are touch-screen devices with a multitude of variants. The companies like Lenovo, Dell and others have come up with devices that have attached keyboards which can be whipped around to be used as tablets as well as a standard notebook. Some other companies, like Acer, are offering devices with detachable screens that can be both used as a notebook and a tablet.
Although a reasonable definition of a two-in-one hybrid device is hard to come by. The only plausible definition seems to be that the device should be able to convert itself from a tablet to a notebook or vice versa.
Considering the above-mentioned definition, Apple has rightly called its iPad Pro a computer. As if a hybrid is a traditional computer, then iPad Pro is not very different from what's already out there on the market; even if it runs on a mobile operating system unlike most of its contemporaries.
The advent of hybrids has resulted in a revival of otherwise struggling PC market, a report published by American research firm called International Data Corporation claimed. PC makers to meet this growing demand have started launching different variants of these hybrids.
It is thus, Apple is also trying to project iPad Pro as a hybrid which can easily be converted from a tablet into a notebook.
The factors like demand in the market, lack of a hybrid which is complete in itself and iPad dynamics left Apple bemused and thinking about new ways through which it can lure customers toward its tablet.
From Apple's latest ad, it is apparent that the company is trying to capture its share of this burgeoning market by coming up with the most powerful iPad for those who seek a cutting-edge hybrid.
The question remains how Apple would be able to convince the customers into buying iPad Pro which runs on a mobile operating system and requires an attachable keyboard unlike other hybrids in the market.
But it's clear that the advent of these hybrids has changed the definition of a modern computer.