Full Fledged Photoshop On iOS! Why It's Such A Big Deal

Ever since iOS 9, Apple has been pushing iPads as PC replacements and back in the day the software just wasn't to par that the iPad pros shipped with. For all intents and purposes iOS on the iPad was just a blown up version of iOS on the iPhone. Therefore iOS on the iPad had pretty much the same flaws that th iPhone suffered from, the lack of multitasking and the lack of pro apps. The iPad in the days of iOS 9 was still more iPad than computer. Then with the release of iOS 11 the entire iPad lineup got some much needed impetus to make them actual productivity machines. Now you had an actual file explorer where you could keep and retrieve files from. Just the addition of the file explorer was a revelation in its own little way. But iOS 11 turned the iPad into something that you could decently multitask on. I mean you could run four apps simultaneously.When it came to iPads updating to iOS 11 was a no brainer.

So Whats Holding Back The iPad Now?

As with any operating system, the OS is only as good as the the apps it runs and for the most part of the iPads life it only ran mobile apps, thereby conforming to be a mobile OS no matter how bad it wanted a desktop class OS. Looking back at the post I wrote a few months back about the iPad being a laptop replacement, It was my conclusion that for the average consumer an iPad could easily replace your laptop and an iPad might do a better job than a laptop in most cases. But the one demographic that I excluded from that verdict were the Pro users. When push comes to shove the iPad App Store doesn't really have a lot of pro apps that can help professionals get things done. I'll admit there are a few pro apps on the App Store like Luma Fusion or Garage Band (albeit no one uses Garage Band but its there), Which provides great desktop level features on an iPhone or iPad. I like to think of Luma Fusion as a proof of concept. Luma Fusion proves that professional editing can be done on an iPad. But alas these professional grade apps are few and far between.

Adobe To The Rescue!

Recently Adobe announced that they're bringing the full version of photoshop to the iPad. If you think about it a touch version of Photoshop  makes a lot of sense. I really do think that you could work wonders with Photoshop and the Apple Pencil. From Adobe's point of view this can be seen as a toe dipping moment. If Photoshop is warmly welcomed in the App Store that could very well open the floodgates to the entire Adobe catalogue. In the creative field Adobe is a force to be reckoned with. With Adobe products ranging from photo editors to video editors to 3D rendering apps. Just a fraction of Adobe's apps on the App Store can really help the iPad to live up to it's pro name. Moreover the entry of Photoshop on the iPad App Store can really motivate other professional companies to port their own photo editing apps over to the iPad. So if things go well we might be in for a slew of professional apps on the iPad in 2019.