I think I spent more than $20 000 on Apple devices in the past two years without counting the devices purchased for my own employees. And although I daily drive a $8000 iMac Pro and a Macbook Pro M1 my iPad is still my most used device for business and personal purposes. I’ll try my best to explain why that is the case. So, is it worth it to buy an iPad if you have a Mac?
Your Answer Upfront:
An iPad is an extension of the Mac and they can work together like no other pieces of technology. You can use a single mouse and keyboard (using universal control) to control both the Mac and the iPad at the same time. You can extend the Mac’s screen to the iPad using sidecar and you can copy-paste and drop files between the two devices seamlessly and without the need for 3rd party software.
In this article we’ll talk about why an iPad is an amazing companion to a Mac. I’ll walk you through my use cases for owning an iPad and a Mac, how they interact and how it boosts my productivity. I’ll then explain why the iPad shines as a stand alone device. By the end of the article you’ll have a pretty good idea if it’s worth buying an iPad if you have a Mac.
The iPad Is An Amazing Standalone Device
Take a look at the gallery above. As a standalone device the iPad is incredibly versatile and great for many usages. I use mine to manage my blogging and game development business. I use it to keep track of what my employees are doing, I use it write code and design games and I use it to play and test my games.
As a standalone device the iPad is an incredibly portable computer with an all-day battery life and enough power to put 90% of the laptops out there to shame.
Many people classify the iPad as a content consumption device but that cannot be further from the truth. It has the power and, thanks to iPadOS 16’s changes, the software to be an amazing asset to a business.
What can you do with an iPad? Here’s a non exhaustive list of tasks that the iPad can be suitable for:
- Read and write emails and manage mailing lists
- Write, edit and publish documents
- Manage a team of employees or groups and handle online meetings
- Using Skype, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet/Hangout, Discord
- Administer servers and connect to remote computers
- Run blogs and websites
- My article titled “Can You Run A Business On the iPad?” goes into details on how I manage my blogs from the iPad Itself
- Run and manage one or more youtube channels
- Use it as a Point of Sale Device
- In the article titled “How Are iPads Used In Business” I talk about the iPad’s usage as a Point of Sale Device
- Edit PDF’s, especially with the Apple Pencil (I wrote an extensive guide for this in the article titled “How To Edit PDF With Apple Pencil On iPad (Detailed Guide)“.
- Keep Track Of Inventory Items (even by scanning their bar codes)
- Convert Handwriting to Text
- Create and send invoices
- Manage LiveStock on/for your Farm
- Digitally sign documents (especially for accounting purposes)
- Create Art and Graphics for Advertising, Websites or general Design
- Use 3D Modelling applications
- Use the iPad for market research, surveys and Lead Generation (again, all of these covered in my “How Are iPads Used In Business” article.
- Take notes in classes or during presentations.
And those are just a few things that the iPad can be used for as a standalone device. The only time an iPad won’t be useful is for programmers who want to write their own custom applications and that’s only if those apps need to be compiled or built on the iPad itself.
By using Swift or a scripting language you can make apps and games directly on the iPad. I would know because I actively use my iPad Pro to design, code and build games using my iPad. My secret here is that I wrote my own custom game engine and I embedded Lua as a scripting language for most of the game’s logic.
The iPad Is A Great Companion To A Mac
Like I mentioned in the intro I own a iMac Pro that set me back about $8000 when I purchased it. I also own a Macbook Pro M1 that I purchased so I can work while on the go. And yet most of the time I rely on my iPad Pro for 90% of my tasks. And when I’m using my Macs? I’m also using my iPad. Let me explain.
Take a look at the above picture. It shows my home office desk setup that uses the iMac Pro, Macbook Pro M1 and iPad Pro. Notice that the only input mechanism on the desk is the Macbook Pro’s keyboard and trackpad (excluding the DualShock 4 Controller on the right).
Apple Introduced Universal Control with iPadOS 15 and MacOS Monterey which allows you to automagically share a keyboard and mouse between multiple apple devices. This means that by just using my Macbook Pro I can control and send input to both my iPad Pro and my iMac Pro. The iPad itself becomes a 3rd screen with it’s own processing power.
Let me give you an example. I’m a game developer and I make game for my clients. There are times when I have to generate and bake the lighting features for my games, a process that can take up to 11 hours. I start the process on my iMac pro and I can continue using my Macbook and iPad to get work done without the system performing slowly due to a background task.
Now imagine the next situation that’s more relevant for you as a reader. Let’s say you have a Macbook and an iPad and you’re editing a video on your Macbook. Once the video begins rendering and exporting the more intensive tasks you do on the mac, the slower the performance or the longer the export.
By using an iPad with your Mac you can type and use the mac’s trackpad to write documents or edit a thumbnail for that video straight on the iPad without noticing any performance loss because the iPad itself is a separate computer.
I can’t stress how much of a win this is. The iPads and Macs are great for each other. You can drag and drop files and folders from one to another or from a Mac to an iPad App by just dragging your mouse from the Mac’s screen to the iPad’s screen.
And when you need more screen real-estate? The Mac has the ability to use the iPad as an external screen. All you need to do is to have the iPad and Mac on the same wireless network OR connected via a USB-C cable (or lightning if you have a lightning iPad).
Is it worth buying an iPad if you have a Mac?
An iPad is an extension of the Mac and they can work together like no other pieces of technology. You can use a single mouse and keyboard (using universal control) to control both the Mac and the iPad at the same time. You can extend the Mac’s screen to the iPad using sidecar and you can copy-paste and drop files between the two devices seamlessly and without the need for 3rd party software.
I’d rather give up my Macbook Pro M1 from my Home Setup rather than get rid of my iPad. The combination of a Mac + an iPad (especially an iPad pro) is one of the best examples of device synergy in the history of electronics and I really feel like you cannot use the devices to their full extent individually.
It’s 100% worth it to buy an iPad if you have a Mac!
Where To Next?
This blog is a blog dedicated to using modern computing devices to run and manage a business. If you’re interested in using an iPad for your business, either as an entrepreneur, a small business owner or for your employees to use I recommend reading the following articles:
