With both the major releases of both iOS 16 and watchOS 9 now out, this leaves only iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura to be released to the public, and it looks like we’re getting more details on when Apple will launch iPadOS 16.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is gearing up to release iPadOS 16 on October 24 with the initial public version as iPadOS 16.1. This will be the first year that the most advanced tablet operating system will have its own release schedule apart from that of iOS. The reason for the delay is that iPadOS 16 will have even more major features that will be exclusive to the higher-end iPad models, and Apple wants to get those features right, especially the highly-anticipated Stage Manager feature. That feature, which was exclusive to just the M1 iPad Pros, will also make its way to 2018/2020 iPad Pro models with the A12X/A12Z chips. The only limitation of those models is that they don’t support external displays. Such support is still exclusive to the M1 iPad Pros; however, Apple has postponed that feature until later this year.
We don’t expect another Apple event this month according to recent news, but we can still expect hardware updates for both the iPad and Mac on the week of October 17, potentially the 10th generation iPad, the M2 iPad Pro, and the M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pros. Along with the public release of iPadOS 16 on October 24, we could see Apple release macOS Ventura on that day as well. iPadOS 16 will be compatible with iPad mini 5 or later, iPad 5 or later, iPad Air 3 or later, and all iPad Pro models.
Would you be interested in upgrading to iPadOS 16 regardless of which compatible model you have? Let us know in the comments below.