Apple iPadOS 19 May Get More macOS-Like Features

Ever since the iPad Pro range became a thing, the argument can be made that, paired with a compatible Magic Keyboard, it could just about be a replacement for a MacBook. iPadOS 16 leaned into this with Stage Manager, the feature that allowed for windowing and grouping of app windows. It looks like Apple is leaning further into this with the next major update, iPadOS 19.

As part of the weekly Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman cites sources who say that “this year’s upgrade will focus on productivity, multitasking and app window management”. The goal is to seemingly make iPads “operate more like a Mac”.

The timeline provided for when this is expected is “about a year after Apple brought the M4 chip to the iPad Pro”. Which is about a month from now, as the M4 iPad Pro tablets were first announced in May of last year. But since the bitten fruit brand usually keeps software unveils for WWDC, June is a more probable window

All that being said though, it’s unclear to what extent iPadOS 19 will resemble a macOS device. Stage Manager was a start, but it seems unlikely that the company wants to allow its tablets to completely cannibalise sales of its laptops, to say nothing of its desktops and AIOs. Some would argue that the iPad Pro line certainly has the number crunching capabilities to do so, if nothing else.

(Source: Bloomberg)