Apple has launched a new advertisement for the iPad Pro, with the focus of the 30-second video on making the tablet a replacement for computers.
Entitled "What's a Computer?" the advertisement highlights several features of the iPad Pro, including its accessories — the Smart Keyboard and the Apple Pencil. The video shows how users can operate the Apple Pencil for handwriting input, with snippets on the usage of multitasking features for the tablet such as picture-in-picture and Slide Over.
As such, according to Apple, the iPad Pro offers customers a more flexible platform compared with traditional computers.
"Just when you think you know what a computer is, you see a keyboard that can just get out of the way, and a screen you can touch and even write on," the narrator in the advertisement states.
"When you see a computer that can do all that, it might just make you wonder, 'Hey, what else can it do?'"
Apple is making the point that today's computers should offer users flexibility, as opposed to selling the iPad Pro as a device that is capable of running software made for desktop computers. With the iPad Pro, users can type on the Smart Keyboard as they would on a traditional computer, but then later choose to keep the keyboard to use their fingers on the tablet's touchscreen or draw using the Apple Pencil.
Due to the iPad Pro running the standard version of iOS, Apple's mobile operating system that is also used in the iPhone, the device grants users capabilities that are not offered in traditional computers with desktop operating systems, such as the huge focus on being touch-based.
"Imagine what your computer could do if your computer was an iPad Pro," Apple ends the advertisement, reaffirming the company's position on the tablet being a suitable computer replacement.
Ars Technica, however, suggested that if the narration of the new iPad Pro advertisement is played over a video of Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, the result would be a good ad for the rival device. The messages of the two companies on their tablets are almost identical, but there is a clear difference in the devices. The iPad Pro is sleeker and is mostly focused on software that takes advantage of the touchscreen, while the Surface Pro 4 is capable of running Windows programs and is more compatible with businesses that operate on the Windows platform.
The changes and improvements that Apple will make for the iPad Pro 2 will further determine the viability of the tablet as a computer replacement. The first photos that are said to be of the device leaked last week, with the new iPad Pro expected to be released in the fall.
