Apple Finally Destroyed Steve Jobs’ Vision of the iPad. Good

For years, Apple treated the idea of windows on the iPad as sacrilege. But with iPadOS 26 installed, today’s iPads are doing macOS cosplay , becoming touchscreen Macs in all but name. And here’s the thing: It’s actually pretty good. So how did we get here? When did this fundamental shift occur that killed off Steve Jobs’ vision of the iPad?

When Jobs first revealed the iPad in 2010, it was pitched as a “third category” of device—something between a phone and a laptop. For that category to justify its existence, Jobs said it had to be better at certain key tasks. He duly listed browsing the web, dealing with email, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading ebooks, and enjoying photos. Coincidentally, those were the exact things the iPad was really good at.

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