Apple released four 16-second ads for the iPad Pro today, each of them highlighting the device’s suitability as a PC replacement. This is an interesting strategy; in past campaigns—like this one from 2015—the messaging for iPad was focused on specific use cases—the iPad as a liberating device for making home videos, dee-jaying, cooking, doing homework, etc. Those ads basically existed in a post-PC world, or at least one that nearly ignored the traditional personal computing. This time, perhaps emboldened by the formidable horsepower of the iPad Pro line or perhaps chastened by declining iPad sales, the spots speak squarely to desktop/laptop-centric issues:

Better than a computer

https://youtu.be/INs_bnk4yJQ

Don’t hunt for wi-fi

https://youtu.be/2-5RP-okG8w

Do more with Microsoft Word

https://youtu.be/K–NM_LjQ2E

No PC viruses

https://youtu.be/dRM31VRNQw0

Note the very prominent usage of Microsoft Word’s availability on the platform as a key selling point. It’s the only app—from anyone including Apple itself—that gets its own commercial. After all the success that Apple has had over the past ten years, it’s surprising to see that their fortunes are, to some extent, still tied to the most fundamental of all of Microsoft’s productivity applications. The more things change…