2017 has been a great year for Apple. Not only did the Apple Watch finally take off, but the iPhone X is on its way to possibly becoming the biggest money-making iPhone yet. Earlier this year, Apple released updated versions of it’s 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro, in particular, has received fantastic reviews. CNET gave the tablet four-and-a-half stars.

“Apple’s 2017 iPad Pro improves on already excellent drawing, video and photo capabilities, but its true potential won’t be seen until iOS 11 hits later this year.”

iOS 11 did hit in September and has made a beloved new tablet even more lovable. And as Ars Technica has pointed out, Apple’s Q3 2017 earnings show that for the first time in three years, iPad sales are up.

“While iPhone sales have increased slightly year over year, the most interesting numbers are for iPad,” noted columnist Valentina Palladino, adding that he company sold 11.4 million iPads during the third quarter of 2017, earning $4.9 billion in revenue.

If fact, Apple’s iPad earnings increased by 15 percent when compared to earnings from the third quarter of 2016. Now, these figures don’t confirm a complete comeback for the iPad brand since sales figures aren’t nearly what they were even three years ago. But it’s obvious that Apple is moving in the right direction.

The 2017 iPad Pro is selling well. Featured image credit: Daryl Deino

As many sources have pointed out, the reason for the downturn in iPad sales over the past few years isn’t because the iPad has become worse. It’s because smartphones, such as the Galaxy Note and iPhone Plus series, have become larger and have eaten the tablet market sales. It’s also true that with the Surface Pro, Microsoft has created a tablet-sized device that can also be used as your main computer.

Apple has been marketing the iPad Pro as the “device that can replace your PC.” However, not everybody agrees. Daniel Cooper from Engadget noted that even though iOS 11 offers true multitasking, the iPad Pro is certainly not a PC replacement, even though you can still do many tasks. Michael Muchmore of PCMag agrees that although the iPad Pro with iOS 11 is a step in the right direction, it’s not quite a step that is far enough.

Most seem to agree that the iPad Pro has become the ultimate content consumption device rather than the content creation device Apple wants it to be. Perhaps 2018’s iPad Pro will continue to make the iPad a better device for creating content. Most Apple lovers want an iPad that runs MacOS rather than iOS, but that may be a far-fetched dream.