Mark Gurman, reporting just a tiny nugget of information on Sunday:

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.

It’s impossible to make much of this sliver of reporting, but here’s a non-exhaustive timeline of “Mac-like” features each iPadOS version has included since its introduction in 2019:

  • iPadOS 13: Multiple windows per app, drag and drop, and App Exposé.
  • iPadOS 14: Desktop-class sidebars and toolbars.
  • iPadOS 15: Extra-large widgets (atop iOS 14’s existing widgets).
  • iPadOS 16: Stage Manager and multiple display support.
  • iPadOS 17: Increased Stage Manager flexibility.
  • iPadOS 18: Nothing of note.

Of these features, I’d say the most Mac-like one was bringing multiple window support to the iPad, i.e., the ability to create two Safari windows, each with its own set of tabs. It was way more important than Stage Manager, which really only allowed those windows to float around and become resizable to some extent, which is negligible on the iPad because iPadOS interface elements are so large. My MacBook Pro’s screen isn’t all that much larger than the largest iPad (1 inch), but elements in Stage Manager on the iPad feel noticeably more cramped on the iPad thanks to the larger icons to maintain touchscreen compatibility. From a multitasking standpoint, I think the iPad is now as good as it can get without becoming overtly anti-touchscreen. The iPad’s trackpad cursor and touch targets are beyond irritating for anything other than light computing use, and no number of multitasking features will change that.

This is completely out on a whim, but I think iPadOS 19 will allow truly freeform window placement independent of Stage Manager, just like the Mac in its native, non-Stage Manager mode. It’ll have a desktop, Dock, and maybe even a Menu Bar for apps to segment controls and maximize screen space like the Mac. (Again, these are all wild guesses and probably won’t happen, but I’m just spitballing.) That’s as Mac-like as Apple can get within reason, but I’m struggling to understand how that would help. Drag and drop support in iPadOS is robust enough. Context menus, toolbars, keyboard shortcuts, sidebars, and Spotlight on iPadOS feel just like the Mac, too. Stage Manager post-iPadOS 17 is about as good as macOS’ version, which is to say, atrocious. Where does Apple go from here?

No, the problem with the iPad isn’t multitasking. It hasn’t been since iPadOS 17. The issue is that iPadOS is a reskinned, slightly modified version of the frustratingly limited iOS. There are no background items, screen capture utilities, audio recording apps, clipboard managers, terminals, or any other tools that make the Mac a useful computer. Take this simple, first-party example: I have a shortcut on my Mac I invoke using the keyboard shortcut Shift-Command-9, which takes a text selection in Safari, copies the URL and author of the webpage, turns the selection into a Markdown-formatted block quote, and adds it to my clipboard. That automation is simply impossible on iPadOS. Again, that’s using a first-party app. Don’t get me started on live-posting an Apple event using CleanShot X’s multiple display support to take a screenshot of my second monitor and copy it to the clipboard or, even more embarrassingly for the iPad, Alfred, an app I invoke tens of times a day to look up definitions, make quick Google searches, or look at my clipboard history. An app like Alfred could never exist on the iPad, yet it’s integral to my life.

Grammarly can’t run in the background on iPadOS. I can’t open ChatGPT using Option-Space, which has become engrained into my muscle memory over the year it’s been available on the Mac. System-wide optical character recognition using TextSniper is impossible. The list goes on and on — the iPad is limited by the apps it can run, not how it displays them. I spend hours a day with a note-taking app on one side of my Mac screen and Safari on the other, and I can do that on the iPad just fine. But when I want to look up a definition on the Mac, I can just hit Command-Space and define it. When I need to get text out of a stubborn image on the web, there’s an app for that. When I need to run Python or Java, I can do that with a simple terminal command. The Mac is a real computer — the iPad is not, and some dumb multitasking features won’t change that.

There are hundreds of things I’ve set up on my Mac that allow me to do my work faster and easier than on the iPad that when I pick up my iPad — with a processor more powerful than some Macs the latest version of macOS supports — I feel lost. The iPad feels like a larger version of the iPhone, but one that I can’t reach all the corners of with just one hand. It lives in this liminal space between the iPhone and the Mac, where it performs the duties of both devices so poorly. It’s not handheld or portable at all to me, but it is absolutely not capable enough for me to do my work. The cursor feels odd because the interface wasn’t designed to be used with one. The apps I need aren’t there and never will be. It’s not a comfortable place to work — it’s like a desk that looks just like the one at home but where everything is just slightly misplaced and out of proportion. It drives me nuts to use the iPad for anything more than scrolling through an article in bed.

No amount of multitasking features can fix the iPad. It’ll never be able to live up to its processor or the “Pro” name. And the more I’ve been thinking about it, the more I’m fine with that. The iPad isn’t a very good computer. I don’t have much to do with it, and it doesn’t add joy to my life. That’s fine. People who want an Apple computer and need one to do their job should go buy a Mac, which is, for all intents and purposes, cheaper than an iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard. People who don’t want a Mac or already have their desktop computing needs met should buy an iPad. As for the iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, it sits in a weird, awful place in Apple’s product lineup where the only thing it has going for it is the display, which, frankly, is gorgeous. It is no more capable than a base-model iPad, but it certainly is prettier.

It’s time to stop wishing the iPad would do something it just isn’t destined to do. The iPad is not a computer and never will be.