Text is our most versatile and efficient means of communication. It seems to me that dedicated keyboards will be, for some time to come, the best means of entering text into a computing environment.

I think at one time, Apple truly thought that touchscreens were the future of computing, in the sense that iPads and Surfaces would supplant Macs and PCs. That seems pretty clearly not to be the case, although it was conventional wisdom in technology circles a few years back. I think it also explains why the Mac stagnated between 2014-2017. I have a feeling Apple was sunsetting the Mac, much as they had the iPod a few years earlier. Yet, things didn’t turn out quite as expected. iPad Pro or Surface will indeed be able to perform 90% of computing tasks just fine. There are an awful lot of tasks (e-mail, video, browsing, social media) for which a software keyboard and imprecise selection are completely adequate. The issue is that the additional 10% tend to be professional use cases.

The mistake was in thinking that the future of computing lay with one device. Just as there are uses for cars and trucks and even specialized machines like backhoe loaders in the automotive space, so there are in information technology. Sure, you can add a monitor mount and a hardware keyboard to your iPad, but it’s a bit like mounting an aftermarket backhoe and front-end loader to your pickup truck. Yes, it will work, but if you’re going to be moving a lot of dirt around, you’re probably best off giving Caterpillar a call.