Android can run Android Studio. Why can't an iPad run Xcode?
Xcode on my macbook doesn’t need 12GB. It is of course a different story if you need to also run clang-analyzer or rust-analyzer in addition to xcode/studio, but still, 16GB would be enough to get by for a sizeable chunk of devs.
I haven’t done mobile development for ages, but isn’t it always slower to have to update the app on the phone all of the time?
6GB is not plenty when you are expected to run an IDE and in the case of Android an emulator that is also emulating a phone with 4GB+ RAM.
iOS development has never used an “emulator”, when you ran in the simulator even on x86 computers, it compiled your code to x86 and ran against an x86 version of the iOS framework.
The only reason you can't run a full blown OS on an iPad is Apple doesn't want you to. It would eat into low-end Mac sales.
Why wouldn’t Apple rather you spend more on an iPad Pro + keyboard than a MacBook Air?
You have a good point. My guess is they'd rather you'd buy both. You can get an older M1 or M2 MacBook Air for cheaper than an iPad Pro + keyboard.
Who needs an emulator when running on device?!?
You would need an emulator if you wanted to run Android Studio or use the much flowery process of updating the phone every time you made a change.
As for Dynabook like experience, given our age, you can certainly find the difference on your own.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45594747
> The ability to run Xcode? Maybe run Linux in a VM (no, emulation does not count). Maybe run nvim with python/node/rust/go/gcc toolchains on the iPad? How about Wireshark? I really liked using Nixdroid on my Pixel, why can't I have something similar on iOS/iPadOS? Android can run Android Studio. Why can't an iPad run Xcode?
How much of that could you do on your Dynabook? How was web browsing? The office suites? Video and audio editing? The office suites? Even the games?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/devices/surface-pro
Think different.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2795490/microsoft-surface-pr...
This compact tablet runs on a Snapdragon X Plus chip and is built for casual browsing and office work. It’s not high-end
The screen has a semi-high brightness IPS panel, 2196×1464 pixel resolution, and a 60 or 90 Hz frame rate. You’ll have to set it up manually; dynamic frequency is not supported. It’s not full pro quality on the screen,
With a 12-inch screen and 3:2 aspect ratio
The processor doesn’t even stack up well against the cheap base model iPad.