(Over)Size does matter!

14th September 2015
(Over)Size does matter!
Both hands now! Apple new tablet, the iPadPro

Apple's new tablet spells  the  new mantra: Bigger is better!
Bangalore, September 14 2015: When American soldiers  brought their  free-spending ways to Britain,   while stationed there during World War II, the locals ruefully commented that the visitors were  " Over paid, over sexed and over  here".  I  am tempted to tamper with this phrase and  say of the  new tablet   -- the  iPad Pro --launched by Apple last week that it is over sized, over priced and over  here.
Mind you, it will be another  6-8 weeks before you and I can even get to touch and feel this device in a showroom in India.  But  having  viewed the live streaming of Apple's launch event,  and concentrating on the only new product in the line up -- the iPad Pro -- I  was underwhelmed to find that  it was so similar to Microsoft's Surface  Pro 3   launched a year ago -- only  bigger.
At 12.9 inches,  ( to the Surface  Pro 3's 12 inches) it is arguably the largest  tablet PC ever offered  and   works with an optional  Smart keyboard  -- and something  that the Apple's late  head  Steve Jobs once strongly panned -- a stylus.  The Retina  touch screen (2732 by 2048 pixels)  is the highest resolution   offered in any  iOS device  and Apple has  managed to keep the weight down to an astonishing 713 grams  and the thickness to less than 7 mm.  There is a built-in Apple SIM in some models,  for connectivity when you are not in a WiFi hot spot  -- but I am guessing  this will only work  with  the mobile provider whom Apple partners in India.
The stylus or  Pencil (which seems outrageously over priced at $  99 ( when even the Surface Pro  threw it in free),  seems like most Apple innovations, a thing of beauty  and as close as you can get to a real pen pencil's  touch and feel.  As you press harder the line  gets wider  and I can see artistic types rave over its creative  possibility. But what about the rest of us?
With a size larger than a Netbook  PC  one can reasonably except the tablet to help you do PC things on it.  But while  Microsoft  realised the error of its ways  with the  flop  Surface  RT    and gave the Surface Pro 3 a full Windows  PC  OS,  the iPad Pro  runs the 9th  avatar of  Apple's phone iOS.  So, while you can run any of the many thousand iOS apps, the machine seems to me ill equipped to  perform standard PC productivity functions.  I know  Apple and paisa vasool are a contradiction in terms but  $ 799 for the 32 GB  WiFi model without SIM    ( Rs 54,000) and $ 1079   for the model with  WiFi, SIM and  128 GB  (Rs 71,500)   plus another  $ 169 (Rs 11000) seems to be a stiff asking price for a tablet albeit  one on steroids,   running phone apps  .  Official MRP in India will be at least  15 % higher if duties are factored.
And can you see yourself  using a 13 inch  tablet  while  standing or even balanced on your knee, in a public place --  I thought that's what tablets were  meant for -- till  they got too big for their own good!