All iPads iPadOS Fragmentation: What do you think Apple is going to do about it?

[Yebubbleman]

Apple has a list of multitasking features for iPadOS 16 that require an M1 or M2. Some of those features will work on an A12X or A12Z based iPad Pro, but might lack external display support in doing so. So far, that's four generations of iPad Pro, and the current generation of iPad Air (and presumably every generation of iPad Air to come out thereafter). Of the current models of iPad that Apple sells, only half of them get these features. That sort of presents an interesting problem. For now, the 10th Generation iPad not having those features is fine because it's not meant to be a premium iPad. The 6th Generation iPad mini is small and most of the features I'm referring to have to do with either adding multitasking features or things that would only really make sense on larger iPads.

But, certainly, unless Apple either (a) gives the suffix-less iPad and the iPad mini an M-series SoC OR (b) gives the suffix-less iPad and the iPad mini an A-series SoC that provides some of those features, iPadOS will be fragmented between M-series and A-series based iPads.

For the short term, this isn't all that problematic. It's often that higher-end features require higher-end hardware. But if Apple never intends to give the iPad and the iPad mini these features, let alone any others coming down the road that also require an M-series SoC, then there will effectively be two different iPadOS experiences. I can't imagine Apple being the most thrilled about that.

What do you all think Apple will do about this? I'm curious.

Personally, I think it would make sense for the suffix-less iPad to eventually be able to have more of the software features that the larger iPads all share. I don't know how important things like external display support for the iPad mini are. Similarly, it doesn't seem like the kind of device that Stage Manager and a lot of the higher-end multi-tasking stuff were really designed for. Still though, I also can't fathom an M-series SoC in the iPad mini; nor do I think that it makes the most sense for Apple to make the mini a multitasking beast when it's closer in size and uses to Plus/Max sized iPhones.

 

[Ctrlos]

Apple have 2 choices:

1. Put an M-series processor in every iPad so every model has parity going forward.

2. Bin Stage Manager and stop fragmenting the models with software features.

 

[VaruLV]

At this point I dont care anymore, my 12.9 M1 wont seen an upgrade in Pro series, overpriced and overpowered for what it is and Apple couldnt care less about it or iPadOS either with their half-baked implementation of "desktop-like" features.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Apple have 2 choices:

1. Put an M-series processor in every iPad so every model has parity going forward.

2. Bin Stage Manager and stop fragmenting the models with software features.

Stage manager isn't the only M1-only feature. It's also far from the most significant.

 

[darngooddesign]

I have no problem with fragmentation which is due to hardware constraints because the iPadPros can‘t get more advanced features if they are limited to what the iPad10 can support. So moving forward it’s CPU and SSD size which determine the major OS features; the M# iPads get SM and external display support, the 128GB and larger iPads get virtual swap memory, and every iPad gets SplitScreen. Other than these things there really isn’t much in the way of fragmentation. I don’t really consider hover to be an example of fragmentation.

Maybe Apple’s goal is to put full StageManager on all iPads, but that wont happen until the A# has enough RAM to also support a 5K display.

 

[spiderman0616]

They're going to keep adding M chips to forthcoming models until this isn't an issue anymore. Simple as that.

 

[floral]

What do you all think Apple will do about this? I'm curious.

I think Apple is trying to divide the iPad into two different classes: Casual, and advanced.. As an example, the word "Mac" is a big umbrella: You could mean a MacBook/iMac/Mini (casual usage) or something like a Mac Studio (advanced usage). It looks like Apple wants to take this versatility of Macs and translate it to iPads.

You have the normal iPad, which has a landscape camera and vibrant colors: this gives the impression that you would use it for stuff like road trips and recreation. The iPad mini is for people that like the base iPad but also need a little extra power for when they need it. And then the iPad Air/Pro are for advanced users, the Air for advanced users that can handle a little less specs in exchange for a hefty discount.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I have no problem with fragmentation which is due to hardware constraints because the iPadPros can‘t get more advanced features if they are limited to what the iPad10 can support. So moving forward it’s CPU and SSD size which determine the major OS features; the M# iPads get SM and external display support, the 128GB and larger iPads get virtual swap memory, and every iPad gets SplitScreen. Other than these things there really isn’t much in the way of fragmentation. I don’t really consider hover to be an example of fragmentation.

Virtual Swap Memory is a substantial feature difference that is very fundamental to how iPadOS functions as a computing platform.

While I agree that you don't need something like this on a mini where the iPhone's iOS model is more than adequate, that is still a substantial platform difference in and of itself.

External Display Support and Stage manager are not significant features for either an iPad mini or a non-suffix iPad to miss out on. The Mac experienced this flavor of OS feature fragmentation all the time during the Intel era (and probably will again in the Apple Silicon era too) and it wasn't a big deal. But how many apps you run at once? How much RAM apps are able to utilize? That's significant and fundamental.

And even if we chalk up the suffix-less iPad as being the budget iPad experience from a hardware horsepower standpoint, you can only cut the iPad mini from these features for so long before it becomes a separate platform entirely.

Maybe Apple’s goal is to put full StageManager on all iPads, but that wont happen until the A# has enough RAM to also support a 5K display.

Stage Manager isn't even remotely the most important difference here. Especially since Apple gave A12Z and A12X iPad Pros the ability to join that party. It's still a crap feature. The other M1 exclusives are really what's significant here.

They're going to keep adding M chips to forthcoming models until this isn't an issue anymore. Simple as that.

This seems like the most logical. Either that or integrate enough power into future A chips so that it's also not an issue.

I think Apple is trying to divide the iPad into two different classes: Casual, and advanced.. As an example, the word "Mac" is a big umbrella: You could mean a MacBook/iMac/Mini (casual usage) or something like a Mac Studio (advanced usage). It looks like Apple wants to take this versatility of Macs and translate it to iPads.

I don't disagree, but things like virtual memory swap are really fundamental to the OS and what developers are able to do with it. Allowing that for M-series iPads and not for A-series iPads (two of the four product lines still being on this one with no clear indication of that changing anytime soon) forks the platform. I don't think Stage Manager forks the platform. Especially since use cases for the iPad mini with multitasking will be closer to that of an iPhone than that of a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. External display support also seems like the kind of thing that is normal for Apple to make exclusive on higher-end iPads (though, one can't argue that adding it to the mini would make it all the more versatile).

You have the normal iPad, which has a landscape camera and vibrant colors: this gives the impression that you would use it for stuff like road trips and recreation. The iPad mini is for people that like the base iPad but also need a little extra power for when they need it. And then the iPad Air/Pro are for advanced users, the Air for advanced users that can handle a little less specs in exchange for a hefty discount.

I think all that much is fine. But Apple seems poised to give iPadOS fundamental/infrastructural features to only that high-end sect of iPads and not the lower-end sect. Features that dictate how many system resources apps are able to use at once or how the OS handles multi-tasking. That's much more of a fundamental "how the iPad is used" element to have fragmentation with than something like Stage Manager or external display support.

 

[Digitalguy]

Virtual Swap Memory is a substantial feature difference that is very fundamental to how iPadOS functions as a computing platform.

While I agree that you don't need something like this on a mini where the iPhone's iOS model is more than adequate, that is still a substantial platform difference in and of itself.

External Display Support and Stage manager are not significant features for either an iPad mini or a non-suffix iPad to miss out on. The Mac experienced this flavor of OS feature fragmentation all the time during the Intel era (and probably will again in the Apple Silicon era too) and it wasn't a big deal. But how many apps you run at once? How much RAM apps are able to utilize? That's significant and fundamental.

And even if we chalk up the suffix-less iPad as being the budget iPad experience from a hardware horsepower standpoint, you can only cut the iPad mini from these features for so long before it becomes a separate platform entirely.



Stage Manager isn't even remotely the most important difference here. Especially since Apple gave A12Z and A12X iPad Pros the ability to join that party. It's still a crap feature. The other M1 exclusives are really what's significant here.



This seems like the most logical. Either that or integrate enough power into future A chips so that it's also not an issue.



I don't disagree, but things like virtual memory swap are really fundamental to the OS and what developers are able to do with it. Allowing that for M-series iPads and not for A-series iPads (two of the four product lines still being on this one with no clear indication of that changing anytime soon) forks the platform. I don't think Stage Manager forks the platform. Especially since use cases for the iPad mini with multitasking will be closer to that of an iPhone than that of a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. External display support also seems like the kind of thing that is normal for Apple to make exclusive on higher-end iPads (though, one can't argue that adding it to the mini would make it all the more versatile).


I think all that much is fine. But Apple seems poised to give iPadOS fundamental/infrastructural features to only that high-end sect of iPads and not the lower-end sect. Features that dictate how many system resources apps are able to use at once or how the OS handles multi-tasking. That's much more of a fundamental "how the iPad is used" element to have fragmentation with than something like Stage Manager or external display support.

We have no clue how Swap Memory works on iPadOS. Apple hasn't been transparent at all about it. We don't even know if it affects reloads at all. It might just be a feature only some RAM-hungry apps can trigger. Nobody knows. At this point we can only speculate. I think some people assume it works like on Macs, but it doesn't. Things reloads in Safari at some point on M1 iPads after a given number of days, even with very little use and few tabs open. That does not happen on MacOS. So again, we can only speculate on how much if affects the iPad experience.

 

[one more]

Apple and developers will still need to optimise both iPadOS and apps to run reasonably well on the lowest specs iPads being sold, so I would expect some hardware differences going forward (ProMotion, more speakers, LiDAR, more cameras, etc.), but would not really expect any miracles as far as iPadOS itself goes.

 

[Yebubbleman]

We have no clue how Swap Memory works on iPadOS. Apple hasn't been transparent at all about it. We don't even know if it affects reloads at all.

You do know that this is an iPadOS 16 feature and that developers have had access to the feature since June of last year, yeah? It's not some secret feature that isn't already out there in the wild.

It might just be a feature only some RAM-hungry apps can trigger. Nobody knows. At this point we can only speculate.

Again, I don't know where you get this idea. This is a feature in the current iPadOS on M1 and M2 iPad Pro/Air models. Developers have had the ability to bake this into apps since late October. You have apps like DaVinci Resolve for iPad already taking advantage of M2 and M1 in iPadOS.

I think some people assume it works like on Macs, but it doesn't.

The point is that it works differently on M-series iPads than it does on A-series iPads. And that's only going to become a wider disparity the more Apple and developers optimize apps.

Things reloads in Safari at some point on M1 iPads after a given number of days, even with very little use and few tabs open. That does not happen on MacOS.

This TOTALLY happens on macOS.

So again, we can only speculate on how much if affects the iPad experience.

The feature is out there today. Developers are already using it. Again, I don't know where the "we can only speculate" comes from.

Apple and developers will still need to optimise both iPadOS and apps to run reasonably well on the lowest specs iPads being sold, so I would expect some hardware differences going forward (ProMotion, more speakers, LiDAR, more cameras, etc.), but would not really expect any miracles as far as iPadOS itself goes.

Developers already optimize for a wide range of iPads. This isn't new. The question is how much more Apple will set apart what both they do for iPadOS and what app developers can do between A-series iPads and M-series iPads going forward. Again, it seems like they're gearing up to make them two different experiences over the next few iPadOS releases.

 

[one more]

Developers already optimize for a wide range of iPads. This isn't new. The question is how much more Apple will set apart what both they do for iPadOS and what app developers can do between A-series iPads and M-series iPads going forward. Again, it seems like they're gearing up to make them two different experiences over the next few iPadOS releases.

Sure devs optimise, yet within the limits set up by Apple’s entry level iPads. After all, they want to reach as wide of a market they possibly can. There was a lot of discussion on these forums and elsewhere once the first M1 iPads Pro were released a few months before the WWDC, hoping for some sort of a major announcement from Apple or, at least, a nice Pro app from Apple to make that new iPad Pro purchase a worthy investment. Well, that WWDC came and went and we had lots of disappointed fresh expensive iPad Pro owners.

So where can we see that Apple are “gearing up”? Fragmenting iPadOS into “pop” and “pro” brunches will be a nightmare. Can you imagine this being done with macOS? I am personally quite sceptical and can forecast Apple allowing us to put widgets on the Home Screen in iPadOS 17, akin to iOS 16, and some possible much needed tweaks/improvements to Stage Manager. Anything else (and I do not mean a native Calculator app) and I will be pleasantly surprised.

We should know more in June.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Sure devs optimise, yet within the limits set up by Apple’s entry level iPads. After all, they want to reach as wide of a market they possibly can. There was a lot of discussion on these forums and elsewhere once the first M1 iPads Pro were released a few months before the WWDC, hoping for some sort of a major announcement from Apple or, at least, a nice Pro app from Apple to make that new iPad Pro purchase a worthy investment. Well, that WWDC came and went and we had lots of disappointed fresh expensive iPad Pro owners.

I wouldn't take discussion on these forums as gospel.

So where can we see that Apple are “gearing up”?

Do a Google search for "iPadOS 16 features that require an M1". That list is (a) not just Stage Manager and (b) not small, relative to what it was for iPadOS 14 and iPadOS 15.

Fragmenting iPadOS into “pop” and “pro” brunches will be a nightmare.

I don't disagree! Then again, with the line being drawn at the mini (which doesn't need external display support [though it would be rad if it had it], Stage Manager, Virtual Memory Swap, or any other M1/M2 exclusive feature) and 10th Gen iPad (marketed at those that don't want to spend money on an M1 Air) makes it so that such a fragmentation isn't so bad.

I think the regular iPad would make sense to get those features eventually. The use cases of the mini seem to not need better multitasking support. Hell, the iPad mini was perfectly fine prior to the 6th generation and prior to iPadOS being called iPadOS!

Can you imagine this being down with macOS?

No, but the iPad is an odd duck when it comes to its purpose and what folks do with it. Case in point, you're not going to have a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and an iPad mini used for the same sorts of things all the time.

 

[one more]

Do a Google search for "iPadOS 16 features that require an M1".

Just did and the only feature I could possibly like on my iPad Air 4 is “overlapping windows of different sizes”. However, split screen roughly does the same trick for me. Stage Manager is just a space waster on anything smaller than 12.9”, IMO.

All the rest of them (Door Detection is a total joke ) cater to a very small group of users.

 

[Username-already-in-use]

I don’t really understand what all the hand-wringing is about. Developers can scale between screen size and hardware capability, there is no drama here.

 

[ian87w]

Well, this is what happens when Apple lost their vision on what the iPad is, and only focus in segmenting the lineup to premium to upsell and profit.

I mean we can look at Apple's own marketing materials. In the past, the iPad was positioned as a piece of glass that can be anything. Now, it's just a Surface Pro clone, with Apple falling into the same situation trying to sell consumers expensive keyboards instead of reviewing their own vision on what the iPad should be.

I think the fragmentation will remain. Apple wants to ensure there's something to upsell consumers to the Pro models.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I don’t really understand what all the hand-wringing is about. Developers can scale between screen size and hardware capability, there is no drama here.

It's the growing number of both OS features and developer features that are exclusive to iPads with an M1 or M2 (with no sign of Apple bringing similar capabilities down to the iPad mini and standard suffix-less iPad).