Watch Out, Microsoft: Apple Wants to Make iPad a Real Computer

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Apple wants to continue improving the iPad with features that would bring it closer to a traditional computer, and the next major step in this plan is a partnership with Adobe for a fully featured version of Photoshop designed for its tablet.

Technically, as part of the collaboration, Adobe would launch the full Photoshop suite on the iPad, replacing the existing version that comes with several limitations and lacks more advanced functionality.

A report from Bloomberg reveals that the new Photoshop for iPad could land early next year, with a preview to be offered in October.

“My aspiration is to get these on the market as soon as possible,” Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer of Creative Cloud, was quoted as saying. “There’s a lot required to take a product as sophisticated and powerful as Photoshop and make that work on a modern device like the iPad. We need to bring our products into this cloud-first collaborative era.”

What’s a PC?

Technically, by making the iPad a more capable device, Apple also transforms its tablet into a more powerful rival to Microsoft Surface.

Running the full version of Windows 10 just like a traditional PC, the Surface has been able to install Photoshop from the very beginning, clearly scoring extra versus the iPad. But with this new release, and possibly with more to follow, the iPad can step closer to what defines a fully featured PC, giving Microsoft a reason to be worried about when it comes to Surface alternatives.

Adobe wants to provide Photoshop users with project synchronization as well, which would technically allow them to begin working on one device and continue from where they left off on another.

In the meantime, Microsoft is also expanding its Surface lineup with more devices, and most recently, the company released the Surface Go, a more affordable 2-in-1 model specifically aimed at the education market.

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