Apple makes a really good ad for Microsoft’s Surface Pro

Andrew Cunningham

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Apple has a new 30-second ad out for the iPad Pro. The tablet, which it explicitly and repeatedly calls a "computer," has "a keyboard that can just get out of the way" and "a screen you can touch and even write on." Apple stops just short of calling the iPad "a tablet that can replace your laptop," but if you lift the voiceover verbatim (the iPad Pro is mentioned by name in the text but not in the voiceover) and play it over footage of a Surface Pro 4, you have a pretty good ad for a Microsoft product.

Stretching the traditional definition of "computer" has always been part of the pitch for the iPad Pro. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls the iPad Pro "the perfect expression of the future of computing," despite his company's history of downplaying the appeal of convertibles and the convergence between touch and mouse-and-keyboard operating systems. But right now Apple's actions are speaking louder than words.

Since last updating the MacBook Pro, Apple has introduced two different sizes of iPad Pros and a new iPad Mini 4, as well as cutting the price of the still-appealing iPad Air 2. Most of the Mac lineup is as stale as it's ever been, and all but two of those computers are at least one full processor generation behind the rest of the PC industry (and the most recent Skylake chips from Intel are on the cusp of being replaced by something else).

The iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 are still distinct products. On the convertible spectrum, the iPad still feels like a tablet first, while the Surface feels more PC-ish. iPads are thinner, sleeker, and fanless, and they have much more touchscreen-first or touchscreen-only software, while Surfaces can run two decades of Windows applications and play better in Windows-only businesses and IT shops. But the two companies' messaging about their tablets has never been more similar.

Listing image by Andrew Cunningham