Hi there,
I am iPad only since May 2019. everything’s works fine so far except one thing. I can not edit my website I designed with Sparkle. So my suggestions / question is:
Are there any plans to develop this great piece of software also as an iPad app?
Thanks & greetings
Benny
Hi @benny,
we don’t discuss future plans, but thanks for the suggestion. It’s not the first time we hear it as you might imagine.
What hasn’t changed in 2019 is the questionable viability of iPad software, the software market is still very uncertain.
Oh ok, I was not aware of that. Since I’m not a developer, I had (unfortunately) never dealt with it.
But I think that in the future, the iPad will gain more and more importance. Not at least with the new iPadOS. I’m curious how this will develop in general and with Sparkle in particular. Many thanks for the answer!
Greetings Benny
You bring up a very good question. You can now get an iPad Pro with up to 1 TB of storage, and with a soft keyboard and a pencil, the iPad Pro seems to be positioned as an alternative if not replacement for the traditional laptops.
I’ve been cultivating a list of creative software to replace the subscription only Adobe Suite, which is how I came to find Sparkle. My other favorite new software is the Affinity Suite from Serif: Photo, Designer and Publisher, perfect alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, and no subscription fees.
Currently Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer are available for the iPad and for Mac OSX. It would be terrific if Sparkle and Affinity Publisher were also to arrive on the iPad.
@mOehlschlager, I heard an Affinity Publisher app is in the making! : ) I moved across to the Affinity suite from Adobe and have not looked back. I use all three for design and print and really happy with it.
I know it would be a bit of work to create a Sparkle app for iOS, but with the new iPadOS around the corner and Apple bridging macOS and iOS I’m thinking we could see one in the near future! 
And it would be awesome!
This would be amazing if it came to light. The 3 most important apps, in my daily workflow, that keep me forever tied to my laptop are:
Mixing Music (Pro Tools Unavailable)
Mastering Music (Quick Work for Client Test - Available)
Editing Websites (All built with Sparkle - we maintain over 3 dozen)
We advertise Sparkle App on our Live Show every week and this seems to be the most requested feature from call-ins.
The need for a portable Sparkle isn’t just for convenience, it’s for updates. For example, say your business has a change (we’re closed, hours update, etc) that needs to be reflected immediately, but you aren’t in the office. You are stuck, since Sparkle is back at the office. That’s why businesses are moving to Facebook, the immediacy is far better there.
As I have a Iphone, Ipad and a Mac at home I am very tempted to buy a laptop just for the Sparkle purpose to use when we are traveling. Not for making website but for maintenance. But as we now have travel restrictions there is no need to buy one now.
As an iPhone/iPad developer I can tell you that going from MacOS to iOS is not trivial. However, if Sparkle had been originally developed for iOS, then going to MacOS would have been fairly easy.
But would probably be dead
Text (we’re closed, hours update, etc) can be changed quickly and easily on the go with an app like Textastic (iPad and iPhone). https://www.textasticapp.com
What’s the most challenging aspect of preparing an iPadOS app? Is it reimagining the UI?
I noticed that the Serif folks had to really solve a lot of UI problems with respect to translating how tools and menu items are accessed in their Affinity suite of apps.
I"m not sure I understand the quesion, but I can say honestly the most difficult part is getting an app approved by the app store review team. Draconian to say the least.
The purpose of the App Store is not to distribute software but to distribute software that is at least moderately protected from the bad actors that plague Windows and Android repositories. It’s why we spend more for Apple products.
Maybe the iPads with the new M processors will get us just a bit closer to it? Hopefully the new iPadOS will bring the necessary changes too.
I love Sparkle and it’s the only app now missing from the toolbox on the iPad Pro. I will be getting my new iPad Pro with M1 this Friday (as I suspect many of you will as well) and I would really love to see Sparkle on it.
Seriously. I’ll pay the full price again. Just release it already.
To reiterate:
What hasn’t changed in 2021 is the questionable viability of iPad software, the software market is still very uncertain.
It depends on who you ask. I’ve been using an iPad Pro as a laptop replacement for almost a year now. There were two limitations. One, hardware - mainly the lack of thunderbolt and storage capacity. Second, lack of software or having to contend with half-backed “lite” version of macOS equivalent. Apple has fully addressed the hardware problem now and software is catching up. Some apps have improved considerably since the launch of iPadOS, which itself has improved.
Also, the display on the new iPad Pro 12.9 is even better and, if Apple’s claims are true, capable of supporting even the most demanding content creators with a visual fidelity that will be hard to rival on any desktop or laptop on the market today. In my opinion, that alone makes the new iPad a hard to beat value and will push more people toward the iPadOS platform.
This has been the promise for 10 years now.
If I could replace my Mac with an iPad Pro I would without hesitation. I think it’s the best content creation and consumption platform ever, or has the potential (for 10 years as Duncan wrote). My workflow is 50% iPad only, 40% SideCar (iPad + Mac), and 10% Mac only.
With Big Sur being written and optimized for the M1 chip, I’m hoping Apple follows with iPadOS being rewritten and optimized for the M1.
But to me, until Apple puts their own Pro Apps on the iPad, it’s not a Pro device.