iPadOS 16 may be delayed until new iPads ship

Posted:
in iPad edited August 2022
Apple is reportedly not releasing its upcoming iPadOS 16 software update at the same time as iOS 16 for multiple reasons.

Stage Manager
Stage Manager


The company typically releases iOS and iPadOS updates at the same time, but a new Bloomberg report claims that it may take a different approach in 2022 by delaying the iPad software update by up to a month.

According to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter, Apple may not release iPadOS 16 until October because of the "ambitious effort to overhaul" the iPad's multitasking abilities.

Among other features, iPadOS 16 has a new multitasking mechanism called Stage Manager that allows users to resize windows, open multiple apps at the same time, and more.

Reportedly, Stage Manager has drawn criticism from beta testers for being buggy and confusing to use. Delaying its release date would allow Apple to focus on releasing iOS first before shifting resources to cleaning up iPadOS 16.

Bloomberg also claims that Apple's software releases have been behind schedule in 2022, even before the iPadOS delay. For example, Apple kicked off its iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 public beta phase later than it has in past years.

Additionally, pushing the release date of iPadOS 16 would bring its debut closer to the launch of new iPad hardware, which could include an iPad Pro with an M2 chip and an upgraded 10.2-inch iPad with USB-C.

Along with the new multitasking features, iPadOS 16 also adds a stock weather app, improved external display support, and some Mac-like abilities for productivity.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    DAalsethDAalseth Posts: 2,783member
    Well, that would be disappointing, but I’ll wait a month for them to iron out the bugs. 
    gilly33watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 18
    Not disappointed at all. Good decision!
    williamlondongilly33pscooter63watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 18
    tewhatewha Posts: 13member
    I'm not sure I'm buying this. Of the three, iPadOS seems the most ready to launch. macOS is definitely the least ready. It's stable, but as implemented on macOS Stage Manager just doesn't seem useful even were it bug free.
    williamlondongilly33
  • Reply 4 of 18
    thttht Posts: 5,420member
    I buy it from a couple if perspectives. Stage Manager with an external display still needs a lot more work, like 1 year of driver work to cover all the idiosyncrasies of various external monitors, and 3rd party apps need more time to update to size classes, and have it work on external monitors.

    I think Apple will be making good progress if Stage Manager is solid on LG UltraFine monitors in landscape. Once you start branching out to HDMI, USBC, ultrawide, and monitor orientations, things are going to get wacky. It will take a long time for apps to be updated and for Apple to get drivers working well. They also have a lot work to support TB3/4 and USBC docks.
    byronlgilly33watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 18
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,152member
    iPadOS delayed, or new iPads delayed? 

  • Reply 6 of 18
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    entropys said:
    iPadOS delayed, or new iPads delayed? 

    Perhaps both. This is just a rumor as of the moment. The hyperlinked Bloomberg article explains a little further but it's all speculation right now. Mark Gurman's predictions are pretty good compared to the rest of the field but he still bats way below .500.

    Only the base (core) iPad has consistently launched in September. The iPad mini has occasionally also launched the same month. The iPad Air and iPad Pro have never launched in September, either October/November if during the autumn.

    Apple may combine the fall Mac and iPad announcements in October/early November presumably with corresponding macOS and iPadOS releases.

    Apple's software QA has slid considerably over the past five years so I welcome any effort to improve software quality at launch. These days I postpone major OS upgrades until Q2 the following year (yes, I updated to iOS 15 and macOS Monterey in April) so a one month delay for iPadOS 16 won't affect me the slightest.

    Remember that Apple tries to finalize their holiday product lineup by early/mid November so any hardware launches will either occur in Sep-Oct-Nov or slip to some time next year.
    edited August 2022 muthuk_vanalingampscooter63watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 18

    iPadOS 16 may be delayed until new iPads ship

    MrBunsidewatto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 18
    Hope they decide to just ship IPadOS at the same time as iOS and not release stage manager till IPadOS 16.4 or .5.  It wouldn’t be the first time a feature didn’t release till later in the cycle.  As for stage manager…I’m quite happy with the multitasking the way it is in IPadOS 15, and  have no plans to use it on my M1 iPP.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 18
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    Big deal! I rather have it just works vs wait for dot release to get major bug fixed. Apple, good decision. 
    dewmewatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 18
    Most iOS updates now -- even, surprisingly, the big ones such as going from 15 to 16 -- are basically workflow-time-wasting eye-candy nonsense, with truly marginal improvements worthy of any note. (Security updates don't even require a "Y" level shift in iOSX.Y.Z let alone "X" level, but could easily be done as a "Z" level update).

    It seems at this point that Apple is keeping around lots of bored developers with not very much to do. Their work revolves around annoying surface-level tweaks of already pretty good software.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 11 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,328member
    Releases should be tied to meeting quality targets, not calendar dates. Of course a well managed release will achieve both the quality targets and meet the dates. 

    If Apple ships its iPadOS software “late” they are the ones who suffer most because it’s probably holding up a new hardware product release that will earn them some nice profits. 

    On the other hand, if Apple ships its iPadOS “on time” but with too many quality issues, millions and millions of customers suffer. 

    Given the choice, I’d prefer that Apple be the one that suffers. 
    muthuk_vanalingampscooter63
  • Reply 12 of 18
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    dewme said:
    Releases should be tied to meeting quality targets, not calendar dates. Of course a well managed release will achieve both the quality targets and meet the dates. 

    If Apple ships its iPadOS software “late” they are the ones who suffer most because it’s probably holding up a new hardware product release that will earn them some nice profits. 

    On the other hand, if Apple ships its iPadOS “on time” but with too many quality issues, millions and millions of customers suffer. 

    Given the choice, I’d prefer that Apple be the one that suffers. 
    As a publicly traded company, Apple's primary responsibility is to increase shareholder value.

    Never forget that.

    Remember that Apple's shareholders aren't just your little Aunt Bessie with her 10 shares or some AppleInsider fanboi with his one share. We're talking about the biggest mutual funds and ETFs on the market as well as billions in market cap in pension funds, retirement accounts, etc.

    Furthermore Apple missing a deadline means its vendors (like LG, QCOM), manufacturing partners (like TSMC, Pegatron), etc. will all be negatively impacted. And therefore the shareholders of those corporations.

    Apple management will generally do what is beneficial to its shareholders. And shareholders have expectations for Apple management concerning revenue, gross margin, profitability, expenses, etc.

    Shipping a key product a quarter late and missing holiday quarter sales is not something that will please shareholders. Instead, Apple needs to make a better effort at keeping with anticipated timelines. If they need to scale back some software features or add more staff, so be it.

    That's why this delay might be just a month, not four. Apple cannot afford to miss shipping new iPads before the holiday shopping season.
    edited August 2022 watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,328member
    mpantone said:
    dewme said:
    Releases should be tied to meeting quality targets, not calendar dates. Of course a well managed release will achieve both the quality targets and meet the dates. 

    If Apple ships its iPadOS software “late” they are the ones who suffer most because it’s probably holding up a new hardware product release that will earn them some nice profits. 

    On the other hand, if Apple ships its iPadOS “on time” but with too many quality issues, millions and millions of customers suffer. 

    Given the choice, I’d prefer that Apple be the one that suffers. 
    As a publicly traded company, Apple's primary responsibility is to increase shareholder value.

    Never forget that.

    Remember that Apple's shareholders aren't just your little Aunt Bessie with her 10 shares or some AppleInsider fanboi with his one share. We're talking about the biggest mutual funds and ETFs on the market as well as billions in market cap in pension funds, retirement accounts, etc.

    Furthermore Apple missing a deadline means its vendors (like LG, QCOM), manufacturing partners (like TSMC, Pegatron), etc. will all be negatively impacted. And therefore the shareholders of those corporations.

    Apple management will generally do what is beneficial to its shareholders. And shareholders have expectations for Apple management concerning revenue, gross margin, profitability, expenses, etc.

    Shipping a key product a quarter late and missing holiday quarter sales is not something that will please shareholders. Instead, Apple needs to make a better effort at keeping with anticipated timelines. If they need to scale back some software features or add more staff, so be it.

    That's why this delay might be just a month, not four. Apple cannot afford to miss shipping new iPads before the holiday shopping season.

    Yes, of course. I know exactly what you're saying and I haven't forgotten anything. Releases must always be quality driven, not date driven. If Apple can only attain the required release quality by a certain date (deadline) by cutting or delaying features, no problem. I absolutely prefer that whatever they ship be fully baked, easy to learn/use, stable, and very well tested. I think we're on the same page with understanding that deadlines are important. I'm simply adding that, regardless of the deadline, quality can never be sacrificed to make the deadline.

    Based on my experience the number one reason why new features disappear between a beta version and the release candidate is the inability to fully test (verify and validate) the feature. Beta testing is very helpful for validation testing because there are times when the development team builds exactly what the product owner requested, and it passes verification testing without a hitch, but upon exposure to real end users it stumbles badly or is critically reviewed. It sounds like Stage Manager may be in this category.

    Product development is hard. I think I've experienced pretty much every combination that is possible when it comes to the challenges between promised features versus promised release dates. I'm very well aware of the implications when these two things are not in perfect harmony. The perfect outcome, of course, is that the team delivers everything that it promised on-time, under budget, and with zero quality issues. All other scenarios, discounting the case where the team delivers more features ahead of time with zero quality issues and under budget, means that somebody somewhere is going to suffer some sort of pain in some way.

    Something has to give, be it cost, features, schedule, rearranging priorities, etc., but the one thing that should never give is quality. So yes, if the date is held firm without sacrificing quality, features will generally have to be cut or delayed. Cutting or delaying features to make the quality bar by a certain date is not painless operation. As you've mentioned, stakeholders suffer when deadlines are missed. But they also suffer when a feature they are planning to leverage as a revenue source or to improve their operations is cut or delayed. So there is a threshold on how much you can cut on the feature side to maintain a viable release, so deadlines do get missed and stakeholders do inevitably suffer. Like I said, product development is hard, but I believe Apple does about as a good a job of it as anyone out there and has a track record to prove it.
    edited August 2022 muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 18
    Apple’s committed ship date for iPadOS 16 is “this fall”. October is this fall. There is no delay, there is just a clickbait article on the part of AppleInsider. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 15 of 18
    @dewme ;said:
    Releases should be tied to meeting quality targets, not calendar dates.

    …and then there’s this little business thing called “window of opportunity” that totally messes up your theory.

    Btw, I got your order of Y2K t-shirts ready now. Where do you want them delivered to?
    mpantonewatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 18
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,328member
    Releases should be tied to meeting quality targets, not calendar dates.

    …and then there’s this little business thing called “window of opportunity” that totally messes up your theory.

    Btw, I got your order of Y2K t-shirts ready now. Where do you want them delivered to?
    So you are saying that it's okay to ship a broken or less than fully tested product/feature just to meet a promised release date? 

    The date bound to the Y2K scenario was immutable, non negotiable, and uncontrollable. Nobody chose the Y2K date. The Y2K issue was handled as an impending crisis and damage control measures were taken to minimize the anticipated problems. Reacting to zero-day bugs is a damage control situation as well. But even with damage control, companies like Apple are going to fully test whatever they developed to respond to the threat prior to releasing it to the public.

    Product and feature release dates are chosen by someone or a team, usually with qualified and rational input from the people who are doing the work, people who understand the market opportunity, and people who understand the amount of combined risk that the organization is taking on when they commit to a chosen target date. All of the variables that go into the release date decision, including "must have" and "nice to have" feature lists, have pros and cons and can be adjusted to maximize the benefits and minimize risk to the company and its stakeholders. This is all part of informed product development and release planning. Product release targets (what features and when) should be neither arbitrary nor imposed, they should negotiated and signed-off on by those who take ownership for the risk. 

    There's a big difference between informed and negotiated product/release planning and damage control. Each one has its place. However, if you are working for a company that routinely runs product development projects using damage control principles, you have my utmost sympathy. If you knowingly allow untested products/features to ship just to meet a date, I hope you have a very stout team of lawyers who are going to protect you from your irate customers and their lawyers.
     
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 18
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    If you knowingly allow untested products/features to ship just to meet a date, I hope you have a very stout team of lawyers who are going to protect you from your irate customers and their lawyers.
    If Apple fumbles the ball with iPadOS 16, their customers will just be given a three month subscription to Apple Music, TV+, Arcade, whatever.

    Apple has done it before.

    And yes, I also cashed my settlement check from the DVD player class action lawsuit.

     :) 
    edited August 2022
  • Reply 18 of 18
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    Perhaps stage manager is a hint at bigger size iPad Pro to come? 14"? 15"? I haven't tested the beta, but on a 13" screen I think screen real estate is precious, and Stage Manager seems to take a whole lot of screen real estate. Will definitely try it once it goes live.
    watto_cobra
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