Mouse support for iPad pro

AaronTheYoung wrote:

Apple will lose tablet market share when the Surface has LTE built in and MS has solved its battery issues.

If that appears to be happening, i'm sure the extremely not stupid people at Apple will decide if pursuing the niche market of people who want an iPad with a mouse is where they want to put their R&D dollars. It is within the realm of possibility that they may decide it's not.

Hello!

Thank you for replying to my answer. 🙂

I would like to begin by addressing your first point. The Apple Pencil is a stylus, designed for creativity purposes such as drawing, writing. It is a secondary interface device that is not mandatory, and developers mostly create applications optimized for touchscreen-first, and stylus second. This is why there is no learning curve for touch-screen-only users.

In regards to your second point, I agree, at least partially. Yes, a mouse would be objectively useful depending on the user, although the main worry is introducing a radically different, and, for the majority of users, redundant way of navigating a tablet. A theoretical solution to this would be to either create a dynamic-user-interface which detects when a mouse input is being used, and optimizes itself for mouse input. However, people would then have issues with the transition of using a touchscreen and mouse intermittently. Therefore, the introduction of a mouse would be a burden for most developers, and an extremely tiny niche, to say the very least.

Lastly, I personally do not agree with your point regarding devices which utilize a touchscreen + mouse & keyboard interface for the user. I am assuming you are referring to Windows 8 and above tablets? I personally detest to using these devices with the touchscreen. It is extremely tedious to navigate the user interface, and the majority of software for the platform is near impossible to navigate using the touchscreen alone, as they are optimized for a conventional mouse & keyboard PC setup. Similarly, user interfaces in Windows primarily designed for the use of a touchscreen are inefficient and unfavorable to the majority of users, hence the Windows 8 launch. If instead you were referring to Android's ability to use a mouse to navigate it's menus, I can say that from personal experience, using a mouse in Android is redundant, unsupported by almost all applications, slow, and overall a major disadvantage to using a touchscreen. Android added this feature because they could, not because they should. Apple's philosophy in terms of user interface methods is basically: natural, intuitive, as well as simplistic, yet extremely efficient. Thankfully for Android, the developers outright ignored mouse support, which no doubt would of been poorly executed due to the lack of standards Google enforces on the platform's developers.

In conclusion, I fully understand and respect your opinion as to whether or not a mouse would be a beneficial addition iOS or not. However, in summary, due to the repeatedly successful strategy prioritizing the majority of consumers who use the platform, I see know reason that Apple should stray from the strategy.

Thanks for replying! 😝

- Ice Studios

I agree with the point you make regarding programs / apps that are not optimised for touch screen use. This is the reason that I would like a mouse on an ipad. I do a lot of work with large spreadsheets, the touch interface is not so good when the view is scaled down so that I can see all the fields that I need to see. Even on ipad pro this is an issue. I did not realise how bad it would be until I used it. A mouse does make life so much easier and productivity would be better.

I am not alone in wanting mouse support. Including this support would met more users requirements, people that do not require to use a mouse would continue on without it the same way they always have.

My next tablet will not be an ipad if it still does not support the use of a mouse by then. For now I have to live with it athough it is not ideal.

Hello! 🙂

Thanks for replying again! 😊

In my honest opinion, I think that you should get any model of the MacBook/MacBook Pro Retina line. This is because the work you do is not going to be good on any tablet; the work you intend to accomplish is best suited on a Mac. People could make a similar case that "iPhone's should have mouse support, I could get more work done on my blog!" The issue is that the device was not created ground up for the purpose of completing professional workloads, since other devices, such as any of the MacBooks or iMacs are much better suited for completing these tasks.

In short, It seems as though you are well within the demographic for any of the MacBooks, rather than an iPad Pro. 🙂

Enjoy! 😎

- Ice Studios

Just switch to Microsoft Surface products or Android devices, already!

Microsoft Surface products DO EVERYTHING you want them to do. Have mouse, trackpad, stylus support.

A full computer OS. Scads of ports!

It seems as if you REALLY do not like or care for Apple products or its design ethos.

If you don't like what Apple designs and makes stop buying their products!

Pretty simple to me.

You have very capable alternatives out their in the marketplace that will do what you need without whining and complaining about a device that won't!

For the type of work I do, the iPad Pro works just fine the way it is!

I can't believe after 10 years, we are still arguing and debating about mouse support on iOS!

It AIN'T GUNNA HAPPUN!!!

iMister wrote:

I agree with the point you make regarding programs / apps that are not optimised for touch screen use. This is the reason that I would like a mouse on an ipad. I do a lot of work with large spreadsheets, the touch interface is not so good when the view is scaled down so that I can see all the fields that I need to see. Even on ipad pro this is an issue. I did not realise how bad it would be until I used it. A mouse does make life so much easier and productivity would be better.

I am not alone in wanting mouse support. Including this support would met more users requirements, people that do not require to use a mouse would continue on without it the same way they always have.

My next tablet will not be an ipad if it still does not support the use of a mouse by then. For now I have to live with it athough it is not ideal.

Sell your iPad now and spend the money on a Microsoft Surface Book or Pro, already!

Those have EVERYTHING you need.

Mouse, trackapd AND pen/stylus AND Dial support!

A full computer OS and full computer hardware.

Scads of available ports.

Everything that is not available from an Apple device.

Apple is going to do its own thing for computers and mobile devices!

While I hesitate to state NEVER, Mouse support will not be coming to iOS in any, meaningful, time!

Quit whining and complaining about Apple's mobile device products and what you consider to be their shortcomings!

Get a device that works for YOU!

Apple iPads are, obviously, NOT for YOU!

I have been doing research on Windows Surface products and even Windows 10 is a lot better OS than many older previous Windows OSes.

I even been considering switching at some later date.

Apple needs to drop the "Pro" moniker from these iPads!

iOS isn't "Pro”, yet, and the Pro designation is bringing users to a platform that isn't working for them!

Just because these devices support their own version of a stylus doesn't make an iPad a "Pro" device.

Maybe Apple should have named the iPad Pro something like the iPad "Create".

The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are geared more toward drawing and visual artists anyways.

MichelPM wrote:

The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are geared more toward drawing and visual artists anyways.

While I agree with your general point, I disagree with this. I don't think it makes sense to say that the iPad is only for x or y professions. The range of what people do and what they need a table for is very wide. I bought the iPad Pro and the Pencil specifically for writing. That was after I saw someone else using it for note taking at a meeting. Of course, many professional writers (I'm not one) have considered paper and pencils to be "pro" tools. 😉

If people by an iPad (or anything that expensive) based solely on a largely meaningless destination like "Pro", I rather think they deserve whatever dissatisfaction they incur.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

MichelPM wrote:

The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are geared more toward drawing and visual artists anyways.

😉

If people by an iPad (or anything that expensive) based solely on a largely meaningless destination like "Pro", I rather think they deserve whatever dissatisfaction they incur.

Many do and, yes, I agree with your statements, too!

😉

Wise people by tools like this based on features and specifications, not names. And they research before they buy so that they are not surprised the learn that it lacks something they want. Apple has been very clear from CEO on down, starting with Steve Jobs, that they do not think the iPad needs mouse support.

It's a ridiculous thing that Apple took advantage of its position to impose commercial choices on its customers! In fact, soon i will sell my two iphone plus 7, the two 12.9 "ipad pro, my macbook pro and my imac 27!

I've already gone to an HP Omen X 900 desktop as main pc, and i'm happy (even with v.r. using an Oculus Rift), and soon i will switch my cell phones to others using Android!

I can't use a mouse on a 13-inch ipad pro display and i have to fill the screen with fingerprints, without being able to draw with a mouse exactly... it's just a stupid thing that only Apple engineers could accomplish!

ExAppleLover64 wrote:

It's a ridiculous thing that Apple took advantage of its position to impose commercial choices on its customers! In fact, soon i will sell my two iphone plus 7, the two 12.9 "ipad pro, my macbook pro and my imac 27!

Very happy to hear that.

iPads, last time I checked, are mobile TABLETS! NOT a laptop or MacBook!

iPads and iDevices have been around for 10, count 'em, 10 years!

Apple is never going to allow native mouse support in their mobile devices.

And if you want to do you own boycott of Apple products for whatever your own reasons are, no one here really cares!

Do want you want if none of Apple's offerings meet your needs as long as this is about purchasing the right computing devices that you feel meets your needs and just not your own arrogance!

Good luck to you in the Windows and Android world!

You'll have an extra fun time chasing REAL malware and viruses that are STILL part of the Windows world and RAMPAMT malware and viruses in the Google Android world, not to mention hidden spying and mining of your usage data on that cool, new and "awesome" Google Android phone!

Have a great life!

😉

Am i arrogant? No, you are arrogant!

Do you know what a Microsoft Surface is?

Who said a tablet should not have a mouse?

What studies did you do to know that a mac does not take viruses while windows take them?

A Mac is actually in the same situation, about malware, as Windows 10, while IOS does not take viruses, but this is why it is a closed architecture almost like a washing machine is.

Good life to you too!

These forums are so atrocious, I find it comical that almost all of the threads on this site end with "well, don't buy an Apple product, they suck"... This whole website is the most anti-Apple website around, which is extremely ironic. It's always doom and gloom.

If you had asked "will the iPad get a stylus" about 2 years back, people would be telling you "no, Apple products will never have a stylus because they are terrible, you should buy an Android or Surface", which is a completely horrendous response.

This conversation should be kept to a constructive reach for support by Apple to the people who want this very important additional item who actually LIKE Apple products and want to see them improve the brand. If you don't like that, don't reply negatively with your opinion.

Rob328 wrote:

These forums are so atrocious, I find it comical that almost all of the threads on this site end with "well, don't buy an Apple product, they suck"... This whole website is the most anti-Apple website around, which is extremely ironic. It's always doom and gloom.

As long as people stay within the Terms of Use, they are free to reply as they see fit.

If you need a mouse, don't buy an iPad, not because there's anything bad about iPads, but because people should not buy Apple products if those products do not meet their needs.