macOS Catalina introduces Sidecar, a native feature that turns the iPad into a secondary display for the Mac. It's a useful function that works well, but it's also something that third-party companies have been doing for several years now.
One of those companies makes the Luna Display, a hardware-based dongle that plugs into the Mac to turn the iPad into a secondary display. According to Luna Display's founders, though Sidecar offers similar connected technology, the Luna Display is sticking around.
"We're not going anywhere," wrote CEO Matt Ronge and Head of Product Giovanni Donelli in a blog post shared this afternoon. The two go on to explain that while they're disappointed in Apple's decision, they plan to continue to cater to creative professionals.
We've spent the last five years building innovative products like Astropad and Luna Display that cater to true creative professionals. Our team has always doubled-down on delivering deep customization and low-latency input. Why? Because that's user-driven and that's what we do.
If you have basic needs, Apple's Sidecar may do the trick. But if you're a pro, we've built Luna Display to fit around your creative workflow.
We know that creative pros have highly-individualized and unique ways of working productively. Whether you need to collaborate with multiple users, or take advantage of the Mac mini's portability by setting your iPad as the main display -- Luna offers the freedom and flexibility to build a connected workspace around your needs, so you can be productive anywhere.
Luna Display's founders are also planning to expand to new platforms and see a "bright future" in Windows.
The Luna Display adapter has been around since it launched as a Kickstarter project in 2017, and before that, Astropad, an iOS and Mac app that offers Sidecar-like functionality, was available for using an iPad or iPhone as a secondary display for a Mac.
Sidecar is available in macOS Catalina and it takes just a few clicks to turn an iPad into a secondary display. Sidecar does have its limitations, though, and is only available on newer Macs from 2015/2016 and later.
