With the latest iPadOS 16 developer beta, Apple has confirmed that Stage Manager won’t be exclusive to its M1-equipped iPads.
It looks like older iPads won’t be left off the stage when Apple releases iPadOS 16 in a few weeks. Apple is extending its marquee Stage Manager multitasking system to any iPad Pro model released in the past four years.
Stage Manager is arguably the most significant change coming in iPadOS 16. but when Apple previewed the new iPad operating system at its June Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC), it quickly became apparent that this feature would be exclusive to Apple’s M1-equipped iPads.
This wasn’t just a temporary oversight, either. Apple made it clear that this would be the company’s first significant M1-only feature. In a statement to Rene Ritchie, an Apple spokesperson described Stage Manager as “a fully integrated experience” that “requires large internal memory, incredibly fast storage, and flexible external display I/O, all of which are delivered by iPads with the M1 chip.”
Considering that the M1 chip is the same processor that Apple used to launch its first Apple Silicon MacBooks in 2020, it’s understandable that it’s capable of achieving levels of performance that Apple’s older A-series iPad chips can’t match. Still, with the first M1 iPad Pro models launching only a year earlier, many owners of older iPad Pro models felt left behind.
In a surprise turn of events, it appears Apple has relented on its M1 exclusivity for Stage Manager, bringing the feature to some prior generations of iPad Pro.
