Gurman claims that the delay in the release of iPadOS 16 is due to Apple’s belief that the multitasking abilities of the iPad will significantly improve with the future OS version. It appears that Apple’s software programmers have struggled to include these more modern features in a simple and user-friendly way.

Stage Manager, a tool for iPad multitasking, will be unveiled in iPadOS 16. This multitasking approach will be very different from the multitasking strategy the corporation uses for desktop computers (running macOS). Making the multitasking experience on iPadOS and macOS as different as possible appears to be the main objective here. And it appears that Apple engineers are having a lot of trouble making this happen.

Gurman adds that one of the delays’ causes was unfavorable feedback from Apple’s developer community. These developers have been tinkering with iPadOS 16 Beta for a while, and they’ve not only found a number of flaws, but the overall consensus seems to be that the new UI for iPadOS 16 is perplexing. Numerous these developers have also voiced concerns about the interoperability of their apps.

Delaying the introduction of iPadOS 16 may make sense for Apple given that it plans to introduce a new iPad Pro with an M2-based processor in the near future. What is yet unknown is how current iPad customers will react to Apple’s unexpected delay.