Of all the writers I excerpted earlier this week in my round-up of iPad Pro reviews, only Horace Dediu was willing to throw out the detachable keyboard—literally, with an off-camera crash—and zero in on what really makes this device different.
“I think it’s a completely new product,” he says at the 7:30 minute mark. “It isn’t an iPad. It isn’t a personal computer or a Mac. This is actually a completely new category. It is a product for you to create on. It is a product designed with the notion that people want to make things. It is certainly an exceptional product for that purpose because of this, the pencil.”
If he’s right—and I think he is—the market for the iPad Pro will be relatively narrow, at least at first. Artists, architects, and designers will be drawn to it. For a graphics-whiz like Dediu, it’s a natural.
But for the rest of us, not so much. If you need a keyboard, you’re better off with a PC or Mac. If you need mobility, you’re better off with a smartphone. If all you want to do is read e-mail, surf the web and watch videos, you’re probably better off with the tablet you already own.
Dediu’s review is available on his Asymco blog and in the YouTube video below.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.You might also want to subscribe to Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.