Apple’s giant iPad Pro will make run at Microsoft Windows hybrids

The iPad Pro – Apple’s just-announced jumbo tablet – combined with the newest iOS software upgrade, could be a formidable competitor to Microsoft’s Surface tablet and other Windows hybrid devices.

Let’s start with the virtual keyboard. The iPad Pro’s laptop-sized 12.9-inch screen allows, for the first time, a “full-sized software keyboard,” as pointed about by Apple’s Phil Schiller when he introduced the tablet at the company’s September 9 event.  That, combined with changes incorporated into Apple’s new iOS 9 operating system – released to the public this week – mean the software keyboard can function more like a real keyboard and trackpad.

Taking on Windows hybrids

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet and Dell’s Venue series of hybrids will see stiffer competition from Apple’s iPad Pro.  The Surface Pro 3, for example, is also a big (12 inches), powerful tablet that comes with the Surface Pen (a stylus) and the option for a Microsoft keyboard. Ditto on Dell’s Venue 11 Pro: it comes with the option for a keyboard and stylus.