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Apple Makes Fun of Windows Users, Says It’s Sad They Don’t Upgrade Their PCs

80 percent of iOS users are already on version 9

Mar 21, 2016 18:20 GMT  ·  By
"This is so sad," Schiller says
   "This is so sad," Schiller says

We’re all used to tech giants mocking each other during their press events, so Apple hasn’t missed the opportunity to make fun of Microsoft and Windows users during its iPhone SE and iPad Pro conference today.

Phil Schiller has taken the stage to introduce the new iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch display, which in his opinion “is the ultimate PC replacement,” so it’s very clear from the beginning that Apple positions the new device as an alternative to the classic desktop computer.

Living proof is Schiller’s direct reference to some statistics presented by Microsoft and Intel themselves, who revealed that 600 million of the PCs currently in use are more than 5 years old. “That’s really sad,” Schiller has said, pointing to the upgrade rate of iOS users - 80 percent of them are already on iOS 9.

He has gone on to state that only 2 percent of the Android users are currently on Marshmallow, again praising iOS and the way Apple manages to bring its users on the latest version.

Technically, Schiller’s almost correct, as the 600 million figure is indeed accurate, while in Android’s case, 2.3 percent of the users are on Marshmallow at the moment.

The ultimate PC replacement? Say again?

But when claiming that the iPad Pro with a 9.7-inch display is the ultimate PC replacement, Schiller is just wrong.

First of all, the fact that it has iOS limits the capabilities of the device, and while there are indeed thousands of apps in the store, there still are things that you can’t do on iOS but you can do on a PC with minimum effort. An ultimate PC replacement should be able to replace a PC completely, and at this point, the iPad Pro can’t really do that.

Then, the iPad Pro is based on a concept that Microsoft itself introduced with the Surface back in 2012. At that time, Apple’s CEO himself mocked the Surface and even criticized the Surface Pen, saying that his company would never build such a device.

And now, Apple’s building not only an iPad Pro with a detachable keyboard but also a Pencil, which is extremely similar to the Surface Pen.

In the end, competition is actually good, so we should be pleased that Apple’s building such a device. This only forces Microsoft to create better products. But let’s not forget that today’s event has been mostly about smaller versions of a bigger version of a smaller device. Oh, the irony...