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Apple will be hosting its fall event sometime in September, where they plan to release the upcoming iPhone 14 series. If Apple’s history and certain rumors are anything to go by, the fall event will take place on September 6 this year.
Initially, Apple had hoped that they would be launching the highly anticipated iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 at their fall event. Now, rumors have surfaced which suggest that while Apple may be releasing the iOS 16 in the September event, they may be forced to delay the launch of the iPadOS 16 and instead launch it in October. Apple needs more time to perfect the iPadOS 16 experience related to Stage Manager.
It’s unclear whether Apple plans significant changes to Stage Manager between now and its release in October. iPadOS 16 is currently on its fourth developer beta. It is also available to public beta testers, who have reported minor improvements to Stage Manager during the beta testing period.
The beta testing has also revealed that the Stage Manager in iPadOS 16 has been very buggy, has a confusing interface, and has compatibility issues with most older iPads.
Coincidentally, this delay may be a blessing in disguise for Apple. Delaying the launch of iPadOS 16 by one month pushes its release closer to the launch of the new iPad Pro which is supposed to have the new M2 chip. It will also mean that iPadOS 16 is released closer to, or at the same time as, macOS Ventura.
Apart from Stage Manager, iPadOS 16 has several new features. This includes iCloud Shared Photo Library, improvements in Messages, proper external display support, several upgrades to Safari, etc.
This isn’t the first time that Apple has separated the releases of iOS and iPadOS. In 2019, iOS 13 was released to the public on September 19, while iPadOS 13 was released almost a week later, on September 24.
