The MessagePad was poorly received for its indecipherable handwriting recognition feature and was discontinued at the direction of Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1998 after an internal power struggle.

In August 2008, Apple filed a 50-page patent application that includes an illustration of hands touching and gesturing on a tablet computer.

[19] Initial reaction to the product name, which struck some women as a menstrual pun "indicative of a male-helmed team oblivious" to the connotations, was negative.

Despite using the same Apple A9 and M9 processors as the 2015 iPhone 6S, it lacks support of the always-on "Hey Siri" voice recognition, a feature advertised as being made possible by low-power processing in those chips.

Its Retina Display added support for the True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the screen color temperature according to the ambient lighting.

[42] While lacking the Smart Connector of the Pro and Air lines, it is compatible with a new Magic Keyboard Folio announced alongside the device.

It includes a USB-C port, capable of transferring up to 5 gigabits per second of data; improved landscape stereo speakers; and a brighter Liquid Retina Display.

[60] The first generation of the high-end and professional flagship iPad Pro was announced on September 9, 2015, and released on November 11, (12.9-inch version) and March 31 (9.7-inch).

It used a 7 nm Apple A12X Bionic chip, which comprised 11 billion transistors, an 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU and an embedded Neural Engine capable of processing 5 trillion operations per second.

These cameras allow it to capture medias with wider visibility, and its audio system automatically detects and attracts any orientation nearby.

It debuted Apple's "Center Stage mode" technology, which pinpoints the positions of the users and automatically tracks the camera view accordingly to perspectivally centralize them.

Unlike the iPhone, the cellular variant did not support voice calls and text messages, but only data connectivity; it also had an additional micro-SIM circuit slot attached on the side.

[b] Since its introduction in 2010, the iPad runs on the iPhone's iOS mobile operating system, but it was later replaced with an optimized derivation, iPadOS, in September 2019.

[98] iOS' Control Center can be "pulled" down from the top right of the notch, giving access to various toggles to manage the device more quickly without having to open the Settings.

[104] The iPad does not employ digital rights management (DRM), but the OS prevents users from copying or transferring certain content outside of Apple's platform without authorization, such as TV shows, movies, and apps.

Of particular concern to digital rights advocates is Apple's ability to remotely disable or delete apps on any iPad at any time.

In an article published by NPR in April 2010, Laura Sydell, concluded that "as more consumers have fears about security on the Internet, viruses, and malware, they may be happy to opt for Apple's gated community.

[118] Apple's App Store, which provides iPhone and iPad applications, imposes censorship of content, which has become an issue for book publishers and magazines seeking to use the platform.

[119] Due to the exclusion of pornography from the App Store, YouPorn and others changed their video format from Flash to H.264 and HTML5 specifically for the iPad.

[120] In an e-mail exchange[121] with Ryan Tate from Valleywag, Steve Jobs claimed that the iPad offers "freedom from porn", leading to many upset replies including Adbustings in Berlin by artist Johannes P. Osterhoff[122] and in San Francisco during WWDC10.

The media noted the positive response from fans of the device, with thousands of people queued on the first day of sale in a number of these countries.

Analysts have noted that while Apple's previous iPod and iPhone launches took some time till taking off, the iPad was commercially popular from the beginning and faced little market competition during its first year.

[127] Others, including PC Advisor and the Sydney Morning Herald, wrote that the iPad would also compete with proliferating netbooks, most of which use Microsoft Windows.

[130][131][132] CNET also criticized the iPad for its apparent lack of wireless sync which other portable devices such as Microsoft's Zune have had for a number of years.

[135] PC Magazine's Tim Gideon wrote, "you have yourself a winner" that "will undoubtedly be a driving force in shaping the emerging tablet landscape.

[144] The Independent criticized the iPad for not being as readable in bright light as paper but praised it for being able to store large quantities of books.

"[145] The original iPad was selected by Time magazine as one of the 50 Best Inventions of the Year 2010,[146] while Popular Science chose it as the top gadget[147] behind the overall "Best of What's New 2010" winner Groasis Waterboxx.

Examples of uses in the workplace include attorneys responding to clients, medical professionals accessing health records during patient exams, and managers approving employee requests.

"[155] Since March 2011, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the iPad for in-cockpit use to cut down on the paper consumption in several airlines.

For example, Novation, a healthcare contracting services company, developed VHA PriceLynx (based on the mobile application platform of business intelligence software vendor MicroStrategy), a business intelligence app to help health care organizations manage its purchasing procedures more efficiently and save money for hospitals.