Even though the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2021 has features that even the MacBook Pro does not have, one should not expect it to carry macOS.

This information comes from an Independent interview with Greg Joswiak, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, and John Ternus, Apple's Senior Vice President.

In the interview, Joswiak not only confirmed that there are no plans to merge the iPad and Mac into a single product line, but also denied that the two are in direct competition.

"People like to talk about the iPad and the Mac as two conflicting stories. On the one hand, they say they are in conflict; someone has to decide if they want a Mac or an iPad," Jozwiak said. [There is] a grand conspiracy to eliminate the two categories and make one."

Especially since Apple has marketed the iPad, especially the iPad Pro, as a laptop killer. In fact, CEO Tim Cook even asked, "Why do I need to buy a PC anymore?" when the iPad Pro was first launched in 2015.

Cook said that the iPad Pro would replace laptops and desktops "for many, many people," but not for everyone. In other words, the iPad and Mac are supposed to exist side by side, ensuring that there is some Apple machine for everyone.

Cook also said at the time: "We knew cannibalization was coming, but we didn't have time to worry about it.

This was five and a half years ago, but the same point applies today. In particular, the iPad Pro is powered by the same Apple M1 chip as the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and has a mini LED touchscreen. Existing MacBooks, on the other hand, still use LCD displays that do not support touchscreens.

Back to the present, Jozwiak's comments are echoed by Ternus. He said: "We don't want to step on the toes of this [other] device, so we're not trying to limit what you can do with it or anything like that. We are striving to make the best Mac, we are striving to make the best iPad. And people choose.

"A lot of people use both. And they have workflows that span both. Some prefer one or the other for specific tasks.

In other words, Apple's priorities have not changed over the past half century: the iPad will always be the iPad, and the company's various Macs will always be the Mac. Just as Apple has repeatedly rejected the possibility of merging macOS and iOS into a single unified system.

The boundaries between the two may blur, but the branding will remain fairly clear. Furthermore, until the MacBook gets a touchscreen, the iPad Pro will sit in a strange middle ground between tablet and laptop.