Paul Thurrott completely misses on this one.

[Tim Cook] “You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going be pleasing to the user.”

Which explains why Mr. Cook’s Apple released its own 2-in-1 computer, the iPad Pro, just three years later. Well, that and the fact that the iPad, which had been going gangbusters in 2012, had seen sales slow and then fall. In fact, iPad sales have fallen year-over-year for over two years now.

So Apple, like Microsoft and the PC industry before it, saw convergence as the solution. And the iPad was converged to be more like a 2-in-1 PC. To be more—a lot more—like Surface.

The iPad Pro is 100% absolutely positively not a 2-in-1 PC like the Surface. Thurrott is a smart guy, but I have no idea why he is so far off on this. Hell, Surface fans will be more than happy to tell you that the iPad Pro doesn't run a "real" operating system like the Surface; they're in different leagues.

Tim Cook's problem with the Surface is that it's running a desktop OS, not a touch-first OS. I would be with Thurrott in saying Apple back peddled on their anti-2-in-1 stance if the iPad Pro ran macOS, but it doesn't. No, it defiantly runs iOS. A version of iOS that has a few extra features, but it's 99.9% the same iOS that run on all other iPads.

Does Thurrott think the iPad Pro is a 2-in-1 because it has a keyboard? No, because I use a keyboard with my iPad Air, so that can't be it. Maybe it's because it has a nice stylus like the Surface? No, that can't be it either. Maybe it's because it looks a little more like a PC when it's docked with a keyboard. If so, that's really odd.

Some people get caught up on the hardware and don't think about software enough. On the other hand, maybe thinking as little about software as possible is the only way people can tolerate Windows.