For many of you, the iPad is mostly a consumption device, or screen. You use it to watch movies, read books. Productivity is limited to browsing and checking your email, Face-book and Twitter connections. While there are serious level productivity apps available for the platform, including Apple’s Pages and Microsoft Word, the iPad falls down seriously when you actually try to work on a document.

Under these circumstances, you’ve essentially returned to the 1984 Mac, before MultiFinder multitasking was introduced. You worked with a single app at a time. Quit one app, launch another. I suppose it was all right for importing a word processing document into a page layout app. By 1986, the Switcher app, predecessor to a workable multitasking system, let you preload some apps, and click from one to the next.

The arrival of multitasking of any form on the Mac happened after the system had enough available memory to contain two or more apps, and that’s probably why only one iPad supports Split View. The iPad Air 2 reportedly has 2GB of RAM (confirmed by parts tear-downs), though it’s not officially documented on Apple’s site. Other recent iPads had 1GB. So it’s understandable Apple didn’t want performance to suffer any in exchange for being able to manage two apps side-by-side, although some suggest Apple is doing it mainly to entice you to replace your iPad.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a combination of both, as Apple wouldn’t want you to suffer from a subpar experience in exchange for making the iPad more of a productive tool. There are also changes in the keyboard and managing text that assist in the process of actually using your iPad for work. A separate keyboard almost turns it into a small MacBook — almost.

While some Android gear has offered a Split View scheme, it doesn’t mean they ran efficiently. Regardless, the iPad needed a competitive edge, since other tablets are fine for consumption. Apple’s partnership with IBM also means more business apps, and thus there may have been a confluence of events that will give the iPad a new lease on life.

Early reviews of the new multitasking capabilities on an iPad Air 2, using the first iOS 9 beta, are quite encouraging. Things that were awkward on an iPad now become more flexible, so managing more complicated workflows becomes an easier process, or at least that’s the intent.

Now I’m sure most of you know that I’m not an avid iPad user. Basic email works fine on my iPhone, and when I need something more robust for writing longer messages or handling apps critical to my workflow, my iMac is at my back and call. I also have a souped up 17-inch MacBook Pro (upgraded to a 480GB SSD with 8GB RAM) from 2010 for travel. It may be a heavy load on the long path to an airplane, but I haven’t done much of that sort of travel in recent years. Higher prices and horrible customer service have soured me on flying, and I can tolerate a reasonably long drive. So the MacBook Pro’s weight isn’t so serious a factor if all I have to do is take it from the car to the hotel.

My traditional audio workflow for my two radio shows involves using Skype plus a sound capture app, Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack. There is nothing quite comparable on an iPad; audio recording apps are primitive, which may be due in large part to Apple’s sandboxing restrictions. I’ll let you know if I have any new insights from Rogue Amoeba or any other developer on how this might work.

Editing audio files is easier, so long as there’s a central place from which to grab files created by another app. I suppose iCloud would be the best alternative. I don’t use GarageBand, however. On my Mac, I switch between Sound Studio and Amadeus Pro, depending on the task, and I haven’t explored third-party audio editing tools on the iPad, because it’s not yet suited for my purposes. Maybe it will be; we’ll see.

Even if the apps and the multitasking concept provided workable alternatives, I’d still want to use a physical keyboard. While I realize some of you can manage typing extensive passages with a virtual keyboard, I’m not that person. I’m still exploring the external keyboards, but even the ones to which an iPad connects seem awkward, as if the hookup was forced rather than a natural design scheme where the two mate relatively seamlessly. Maybe that’s something Apple ought to consider as an open when the 2015 iPad comes out, which I presume will be this fall. Microsoft has already gone there with the Surface tablets.

That Apple has clearly invested a lot in improving the iPad’s user experience demonstrates a long-term commitment to the platform. Flagging sales may have inspired these moves, or maybe they would have occurred anyway regardless of the financials. Some suggest that the iPad Air 2 was specifically engineered to accommodate the requirements of split-screen multitasking.

Once iOS 9 is out, I will make a solid effort to attempt to perform my audio workflow on an iPad and report the results. That assumes, however, that the apps and capabilities will be suitable. I remain skeptical that I could successfully substitute an iPad for a MacBook, but I never say never. I am not, however, considering the potential benefits of a larger iPad, since no such thing exists, at least not yet!

An article I read the other day suggested the stakes are so high for Apple that they are doomed to fail by not hitting the ball out of the park each and every time. They concluded that there there were no jaw droppers at the WWDC — and that includes Apple Music since there are already popular music subscription services — and thus Apple did not deliver the goods.

Really?

This reminds me of the complaints about the 2014 WWDC, that Apple’s announcements didn’t include sexy new hardware but were all about software. Such comments conveniently ignored the fact that these are developer’s conferences, and thus they tend to focus on software and tools for creating software. So even though Apple does occasionally highlight new hardware, such as the introduction of a redesigned Mac Pro in 2013, that’s not a given.

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There are a number of takeaways from Monday’s WWDC keynote once you actually look over the announcements with a clear head. But it appears some members of the media are concentrating more on whether Apple borrowed some ideas from other platforms than on how they devised ways to enhance the user experience for iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Apple’s crew made it clear that, as predicted by the tech media, the announcements would be heavily focused on performance and improving the user experience. Certainly there were problems with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. But the media also made little things mean a lot. While I wouldn’t say, for example, that the faulty iOS 8.0.1 update was a trivial matter, it was also true that only a small number of users were impacted. The update was pulled within an hour or so, and the fix released the next day. Everyone whose iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus was partly bricked could have restored their device with iTunes in about 30 minutes or so, assuming a normal number of apps to reinstall.

But some members of the media won’t stop talking about it, yet they will usually ignore Windows updates that do as bad or worse to a PC and aren’t fixed near as quickly.

In any case, it’s good to see that Apple remembers the joys of 10.6 Snow Leopard, and is prepping a fixer-upper release with the promise of better performance and reliability. While I did not encounter any real problems with Yosemite, or iOS 8, I realize that many of you have, and it’s good that Apple is taking stock at the situation. It’s also a smart move to concentrate on improving the user experience with existing features rather than try out new ones and create more problems.

That should be a headline grabber, but many so-called industry analysts and tech bloggers focused on the imagined image of Apple’s photocopiers, even though only a few new features have origins that could be traced to other platforms. All this without evaluating how well the features are being implemented, and that won’t happen until the final release. Even if the betas show promise, they will still be flawed in significant ways.

In any case, it’s fitting to look at how Apple is updating operating systems to address complaints, and the objections from people who have adopted other platforms. It appears to be as much about switching as about making you feel warmer and fuzzier about the experience. So we have the enhancements to OS X window management that include the Split View in El Capitan. All right, there’s a very similar feature in the otherwise dreadful Windows 8, which otherwise severely limited the usual multitasking options in handling multiple apps and documents. Apple simply gave you more choices.

One of the more intriguing improvements is Spotlight, which delivers not just a resizable and movable result window, but offers plain language searches from more sources. I suspect Google won’t like it so much since Apple is delivering more of the information you might otherwise seek via your browser. All right, some wonder why Siri support hasn’t been added to OS X, but consider the practical value. A personal computer is not always used in a setting where speaking aloud at random would be accepted. Yes, I understand about dictation software, but I’m not clamoring for a digital assistant, or at least one that responds to me verbally.

The promise of better performance, with faster app launches and app switching, may not be terribly sexy. But it makes sense any time you have to endure a spinning cursor or a brief wait to get things done.

The Maps enhancements for OS X and iOS 9 are also welcomed. Again, we are reminded that Google Maps offered public transit information several years ago, although Apple promises to offer a better experience as it rolls out the feature in different cities. But since public transit here in Arizona is pathetic except in a few limited areas, it’s not something I’d expect to use even after support has been added. But if you’re in New York City or San Francisco, where public transit is a significant factor in getting from one place to another, it’ll be a godsend.

The new multitasking features of the iPad are significant and have the potential to boost sales. But they are also getting criticism. Split View will only work on an iPad Air 2 or its successors, and some might call it a greedy move by Apple to sell more gear. But it may also be about delivering acceptable performance, that the feature won’t work so well on lesser hardware. That may not matter so much to Samsung, where features are often introduced more for hype value than usability, but it matters to Apple.

Siri’s improvements are also notable. Again the media will remind you about Google Now and Cortana, and how they got there first, but remember that Apple isn’t providing a voice assistant with data gleaned from tracking your online behavior, contact lists and personal emails. Everything is kept on your iOS gear. All things being equal, that’s an advantage even if Proactive Siri doesn’t work any better than the others.

Remember that Apple isn’t always first with a new feature or product. Don’t forget that there were digital music players before the iPod arrived. Do you remember any of them? A former BlackBerry executive remembers how they botched the launch of a competitor to the iPhone and nearly did in the company. And don’t forget how the first iPad killers quickly vanished from the marketplace.

By adding features people might be accustomed to on other platforms and, for Android users, offering a Move to iOS app for switchers, Apple is working hard to respond to the reasons some might cite in not buying iPhones or iPads. The Mac argument was won long ago when Apple took over the higher priced segments of the PC market.

Although it’s clear that Google is adapting some iOS features for the forthcoming Android M OS, Apple has gotten attacked of late for doing the reverse in iOS 9. But many of those stories fail to mention that it happens in both directions. I suppose you could say that Apple brought upon such responses through the years when they made such proclamations as “Redmond, start your photocopiers” when announcing new versions of OS X.

And I remember when the Balloon Help menu changed to a Help label on Macs (similar to the Windows counterpart), but that’s not a terribly significant issue, and it happened years ago.

In any case, it’s encouraging to hear Apple executives boast about the fact that more and more Android users are switching to the iPhone and the iPad, and it does appear Android’s growth worldwide has stalled. But switching from one smartphone platform to another is not a cakewalk for most people. I did it in reverse to give Android a thorough workout when I configured two different flagship Samsung smartphones.

Now if you depend on Google for email and contact lists, migrating to Android may not be terribly hard. Sure, you’ll have to find equivalent Android apps, and forget about any iTunes content that has digital rights management, such as movies and TV shows.

The long and short of it is that I am not much of a user of Google services, so I configured the Android handsets manually for the most part, and sought out similar apps in the Google Play store when there was no direct equivalent. It actually took several days to go through all the settings, and configure the new apps to do my bidding. But switching back to the iPhone was actually easier even though it was also done from scratch.

Well, it seems Apple is making a proactive effort to make the switching process as seamless as possible, in keeping with the way they can migrate your data from a Windows PC via OS X’s Migration Assistant. It will come with the release of iOS 9, and it’s called Move to iOS.

According to Apple, “Just download the Move to iOS app to wirelessly switch from your Android device to your new iOS device. It securely transfers your contacts, message history, camera photos and videos, web bookmarks, mail accounts, calendars, wallpaper, and DRM-free songs and books. And it will help you rebuild your app library, too. Any free apps you used — like Face-book and Twitter — are suggested for download from the App Store. And your paid apps are added to your iTunes Wish List.”

Since the most popular apps are mostly available on both platforms, it shouldn’t take long to get set up. Of course, you will have to buy your paid apps all over again; there’s no way to transfer user licenses as there are sometimes with Windows and equivalent Mac apps. I also assume that the geniuses at an Apple Store will help to do the heavy lifting for new iPhone and iPad buyers.

Still, if you’ve customized Android to a fare-thee-well, and I know there are often far more adjustments than you’d find on iOS, you’ll have to pretty much start over with the granular settings. For most users, however, Apple’s migration app should be all they need to get set up; well, aside from apps that have to be repurchased.

Obviously it will take user experiences from died-in-the-wool Android users to get a handle on how accurate the transfer process actually is, and what work is required to flesh out the app library to near-equivalents of what Google offers. But since the App Store has a superior selection of software that’s actually useful, this may actually represent an advantage. No doubt there will be early release glitches in the Move to iOS app, and I suppose it’s possible that Android fragmentation will result in some loose ends.

I also whether Google will want to attempt a similar maneuver, which is to provide a Move to Android app of some sort. Turnaround is fair play and all that. There is already a site where Google makes a limited effort to explain such a migration process, but it lacks a lot of significant information, such as transferring non-Google email accounts. So you’ll be able to handle the basics, but not much else, particularly if you’re not already invested in Google services for much of your stuff. There are also third-party options that are more inclusive. But that also has historically applied to switching from Android to iOS.

With an official app from Apple the equation is changed, since the app will directly link to iOS services that third-party apps can’t access. But I’d wonder, offhandedly, whether Google would want to provide some way to block use of such an app, though the migration process would probably be similar to transferring data from one Android device to another aside from the iOS-specific additions, such as suggesting equivalent iOS apps.

At the same time, Apple will be releasing its first Android app, for the new Apple Music service. Reminds me of the time iTunes for Windows was first released.