Since June, I have been thinking of Vision as being more Mac-like, in part because both were built for multitasking¹. The more I think about it however, the more I think that Vision is really a rethinking of how multitasking iPad apps should work.

Almost a year ago, I argued that multitasking on iPad suffered because you can’t have touchability, productivity, and portability. An 11” iPad Pro can’t have the information density of a Mac while retaining both its portable size and its touch friendliness. In that piece, I used the term “information density” to describe how pointer driven interfaces can display more information because their controls (button, menus, etc…) don’t require nearly as much affordance as those needed to do touch interfaces well.

“Density” is really only a means to being “information rich“. My conclusion was that the only way Apple could deliver an information rich multitasking experience with iPads Pro would be better support for large screens. An iPad Pro connected to a hypothetical “Studio Display Touch” could be significantly more information rich. The trade off, of course, would be portability.

My thinking at the time was that portability had to be dictated by screen size, because historically that was the case. A device could only be as small as its screen, regardless of its OS or user experience. Headsets are the very recent exception. They can provide portability without sacrificing screen size. Even without any modifications, windowed apps that feel cramped in Stage Manager on iPad will suddenly feel much more natural on Vision because they can be maximally information rich without having to be information dense.

Throughout the 2010s, there was always a question of whether the iPad could supplant the Mac. How that would actually happen always seemed like the underpants gnomes’ plan, with no clear line from A to B, and step two perpetually filled with question marks. There is a clear line how Vision could supplant another Apple product line, but the closest target isn’t the Mac, it’s the iPad Pro.