The release of iPadOS 16 has been pushed back to October from September, according to a Bloomberg report from earlier this month, because Apple is unhappy with the Stage Manager experience. In light of the delay, Apple has released the first beta of iPadOS 16.1 to developers.
Apple didn’t confirm rumours that the iPadOS 16 rollouts will be postponed because of quality control problems. The business, on the other hand, argues that this year is a “major year for iPadOS” and that the operating system will now operate on “its own schedule.”
Apple Released the Following Statement to Tech Crunch:
The iPad operating system (iOS) is having a banner year. Since iPadOS is its own platform with unique characteristics, it can be released whenever it’s ready. Version 16.1 of iPadOS will be released this Fall as a free software update, following the release of iOS.
Stage Manager is a major addition to iPads with iOS 16, allowing users to simultaneously operate many programmes in separate windows, but Apple will likely spend further time refining this function. The function has received negative feedback for being difficult to understand and unreliable, in addition to requiring an iPad with the M1 chip.
Apple is rumoured to be readying a new generation of iPads for an October launch, so delaying the rollout of iPadOS 16 until then would make more sense. “as version 16.1” of iPadOS 16 will be released later this fall. However, iOS 16.0 for iPhones is scheduled for release in the near future.
I Pad Os 16.1 Beta
Apple has published the first beta of iPadOS 16.1 to developers (currently labelled as iPadOS 16.0 beta 7 on the Apple Developer website) so that testing can continue. Whether or not iPadOS 16.1 beta improves over the previous beta 6 release of iPadOS 16.0 is currently unknown.
A delay between iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 could have serious consequences for developers, as developer James Thomson notes on Twitter. This is because a large number of developers are creating universal apps utilising iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 APIs, and there is currently no mechanism to segment them. Until Apple officially releases iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, developers have little choice but to hold off on updating their apps.
iOS 16.0 beta 7 was also made available to developers on Tuesday. iPadOS 16.1 beta 1 has a build number of 20B5027f, compared to iOS 16.0 beta 7’s 20A5356a.
Notice anything new in today’s beta releases of iOS 16 beta 7 and iPadOS 16.1 beta 1? You can share your thoughts with us here or at @9to5Mac on Twitter. Here at 9to5Mac, we’ll be providing comprehensive hands-on coverage of the new releases all day long today and for the rest of the week.