Apple might finally be working on improving iPad multitasking and productivity with iPadOS 19 by making it work more like a Mac. This might address longtime user complaints who believe iPad has been held back by its software, despite featuring the power of M-series Apple Silicon chips.
As one of the aforementioned iPad users (who is writing this on an 11-inch M4 iPad Pro) who have been unhappy with how Apple has treated the platform, this news is huge. Many popular iPad users and advocates have been complaining recently about how the platform is not evolving and brings no improvements year-over-year in terms of productivity and even basic multitasking issues. I’m looking at you, Stage Manager.
Mark Gurman mentioned in his latest Power On newsletter that iPadOS 19 will be more like a Mac than ever before by focusing on improvements to productivity, multitasking, and app window management. This basically means that Apple is looking to fix everything that is currently wrong with iPadOS.
Gurman mentions in the latest newsletter:
“I’m told that this year’s upgrade will focus on productivity, multitasking and app window management — with an eye on the device operating more like a Mac. It’s been a long time coming, with iPad power users pleading with Apple to make the tablet more powerful.”
Take all this with a grain of salt though. This is not the first time that it has been reported that Apple is looking to implement improvements for iPadOS. The last time that Apple implemented such updates resulted in Stage Manager, which turned out to be a very limited version of macOS multitasking that users were expecting. Alongside, Apple added some visible controls so users could multitask with Split View and Slide Over, however, none of these features can be compared to traditional desktop class multitasking.
Apple is expected to announce iPadOS 19 this year at WWDC25 on June 9. Stay tuned as we keep you updated on this.
