It’s a cool, sunny morning at Apple Park as I’m strolling my means alongside the long-lasting glass ring to fulfill with Apple’s SVP of Software program Engineering, Craig Federighi, for a dialog in regards to the iPad.
It’s the Wednesday after WWDC, and though there are nonetheless some builders and members of the press round Apple’s campus, it looks as if workers have returned to their common routines. Peek via the glass, and also you’ll see engineers working at their stations, half-erased whiteboards, and an infinite provide of Studio Shows on picket desks with rounded corners. Some friends are nonetheless taking photos by the WWDC signal. There are fewer safety canine, however they’re clearly all good.
Regardless of the listing of elaborate questions on my thoughts about iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking, the lengthy historical past of iPad criticisms (together with mine) through the years, and what makes an iPad totally different from a Mac, I can’t cease enthusiastic about the best, most blatant query I may ask – one which harkens again to an outdated business in regards to the firm’s modular pill:
In 2025, what even is an iPad in line with Federighi?
In the event you’re new to MacStories, it’s best to in all probability know that I’ve been via quite a bit with the iPad in my quest to make use of it as my main pc, which started all the way in which again in 2012. What began as a necessity on account of some well being points, nonetheless, later become a deliberate selection: even after I used to be previous these issues, I made a decision to maintain utilizing the iPad as a result of I’d fallen in love with its flexibility and modular nature. Over the previous decade, I’ve written extensively in regards to the system, its working system, and its ecosystem of apps. I began reviewing iPadOS alongside iOS in my annual critiques with model 13; I shared my frustrations with Stage Supervisor in iPadOS 16; and final yr, I felt it was time to doc all the constraints that energy customers like myself have been dealing with when making an attempt to get work finished on iPadOS.
And when you’re new to MacStories, there’s one thing else it’s best to find out about me. At a elementary degree, I strongly imagine in constructive criticism. Through the years, I’ve each shared love for the iPad and criticized it for a similar cause: it’s my favourite pc Apple’s ever made. Which is why, after all, I persevered and located a means to make use of my iPad Professional for all the things…with a number of workarounds.
iPadOS’ New Windowing System
I got here into this WWDC considering – or, on the very least, hoping – that Apple would present a newfound dedication to the iPad and iPadOS, addressing the longstanding issues of those that have been pushing iPadOS to its limits whereas protecting true to the essence of the system. It’s a cautious balancing act, however having tried iPadOS 26 on my 13” iPad Professional for the previous week, it appears clear to me that Apple delivered this yr.
At WWDC, on the finish of a keynote centered on a multi-platform design language known as Liquid Glass, some Apple Intelligence updates, and quite a lot of app-related enhancements, Federighi took the (digital) stage to unveil iPadOS 26, which, later this yr, will convey what I imagine is the most important enchancment to iPad multitasking for the reason that authentic Cut up View and Slide Over from a decade in the past. These options are, actually, gone, changed by a model new windowing system that pulls from some acquainted components of macOS multitasking, equivalent to fluid window resizing and site visitors gentle controls, whereas additionally placing a singular iPad spin on issues. There’s now a menu bar on the prime of the display that collects all of the instructions and keyboard shortcuts supported by any app – one other macOS-inspired characteristic that, nonetheless, additionally works with contact. The system pointer is now, properly, pointier, permitting for extra exact focusing on of UI components. Apple even introduced superior tiling choices – once more, beforehand unique to macOS – to separate the display into halves and quarters with assist for – you guessed it – both oblique manipulation or contact controls.
It’s quite a bit to cowl, and iPadOS 26 is shaping as much as be the type of large OS replace that can preserve me busy this summer season as I work on my annual evaluate to publish later this yr. And in making ready for this interview, I notice that the variety of questions I’ve for Federighi displays the sheer quantity of latest functionalities in iPadOS 26. However then once more, I need to begin easy. And I select to comply with my assumption that there’s no simpler method to begin a geeky iPad dialog with the pinnacle of software program at Apple than asking him how he feels.
“Oh, I really feel nice”, Federighi begins. “There are a lot of bulletins, however iPad has been one which, since we launched into this venture, we’ve been ready for today.”
Chances are you’ll assume that there isn’t a lot in that reply – and that might be incorrect. When Federighi mentions embarking on the iPadOS 26 venture, he’s referring to a multi-year, company-wide effort to utterly rebuild the iPad’s windowing system round a brand new engine.
Apple didn’t go into element about this at WWDC, however with the newest model of iPadOS, the corporate has scrapped the windowing engine that powered iPadOS 16’s Stage Supervisor (and subsequent iterations) and changed it with a brand new one constructed round a window prioritization system. This new engine faucets into a number of low-level frameworks of iPadOS and coordinates throughout the CPU, NAND, GPU, and battery to optimize window rendering and perceive which home windows needs to be prioritized based mostly on consumer exercise. The result’s a extra highly effective and environment friendly system that, in my expertise with the iPadOS 26 developer beta, permits for as much as 12 home windows to be energetic on-screen on my M4 iPad Professional. I’ve been capable of mess around with iPadOS 26 on each the 11” and 13” iPad Professional; whereas I nonetheless assume that the smaller Professional mannequin strikes a greater stability between laptop-like options and pill portability, multitasking energy customers will in all probability need to gravitate towards the bigger mannequin for extra snug windowing.
The brand new windowing system can also be the explanation why Apple has been capable of convey extra superior capabilities to older iPad fashions, together with the iPad mini, supposedly with out sacrificing battery life. I haven’t been capable of set up iPadOS 26 on older or non-Professional iPads but, however it’s one thing I plan on investigating this summer season to see if Apple’s guarantees maintain true.
The iPad’s Multitasking Historical past
Which brings me to my tumultuous relationship with Stage Supervisor, launched by Apple in iPadOS 16 in a state I didn’t take into account ok. The corporate later improved upon a number of the obtrusive problems with the unique Stage Supervisor: whereas the characteristic nonetheless took care of putting and shifting home windows round for customers, iPadOS 17 gave customers somewhat extra management over window placement and improved stability. Nonetheless, it appeared like there was a profound disconnect between what superior iPad customers needed from the platform and what Apple was providing them with Stage Supervisor and its limitations when it comes to variety of home windows and consumer management.
In iPadOS 26, Stage Supervisor is, primarily, a beauty characteristic. It’s nonetheless out there for customers who need to group their home windows by workspace, however these workspaces are now not restricted to 4 home windows, and home windows fluidly resize in actual time because of Apple’s new windowing engine. Stage Supervisor is now an non-compulsory toggle in Management Heart, and it’s the third possibility within the iPad’s multitasking settings, described as a “centered multitasking expertise”.
If this sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of Stage Supervisor now works on iPadOS prefer it does on macOS. It’s an non-compulsory, visible mode, and it’ll now not dictate what number of home windows you may put in a workspace, how they resize, or the place you place them. It simply organizes them by workspace. And I’ve to say: I really like the mixture of improved windowing and Stage Supervisor’s project-based app group now.
I’d been enthusiastic about your complete evolution of the iPad’s app expertise in the course of the week of WWDC – and never simply because I used to be going to interview Federighi, however as a result of I’ve been round for the entire factor. I’ve reviewed all the key iterations of iPad multitasking thus far, and I’ve witnessed firsthand how the corporate has swung in numerous instructions whereas making an attempt to protect the iPad’s authentic ethos alongside the way in which. I need to ask Federighi about his ideas on arriving at iPadOS 26’s tackle multitasking; a lot to my shock, he responds with an in-depth evaluation of 15 years of iPad utilization and multitasking progress.
“Determining what the precise multitasking expertise is for this system, and in all of the ways in which make it distinctive, has been one thing that I believe deserved cautious exploration”, Federighi begins, after telling me that he’s “on an iPad daily, on a regular basis”.
The iPad started as a full-screen, one-app-at-a-time affair in 2010 with iPhone OS 3.2. This design resolution gave iPad critics on the time loads of ammunition to name the pill only a large iPhone, a remark that might be recycled for a number of years. Federighi notes that one of many facets that made the unique iPad expertise so particular – and one thing that’s nonetheless true as we speak – is that you just don’t want to fret about closing or managing apps when you don’t need to. Arguably, an excellent portion of iPad customers – whether or not that’s children, mother and father, grandparents, or individuals who simply desire a pill for books and movies – by no means fear about the rest. As Federighi describes it, that a part of the expertise “was so easy and so computerized that it allowed us to be in our circulation, and the system – the computing a part of it – may type of disappear”.
However right here’s one other means to take a look at the iPad’s multitasking evolution: at this level in 2025, the iPad has had some model of multitasking for over two thirds of its life.
At WWDC 2015 – precisely a decade in the past – Apple launched iOS 9, which introduced Cut up View and Slide Over to the iPad, permitting customers to show as much as three apps on-screen without delay. “With the primary model with Slide Over and Cut up View, we actually needed to reduce the diploma to which you felt such as you have been managing apps”, Federighi notes, and that was actually the case. Not like subsequent iterations, the unique Cut up View and Slide Over didn’t assist drag and drop (extra on this later); there was a devoted app picker for Cut up View, and Slide Over didn’t assist a number of apps. “What made the iPhone and the iPad so magical was the phantasm of you immediately interacting with the content material underneath glass. And that meant excellent interactivity”, Federighi provides, noting that sustaining the iPad’s simplicity and interactive nature is at all times going to be “job one” for Apple.
The dialog then strikes on to Stage Supervisor, which Apple launched with iPadOS 16 in 2022. As you already know, I wasn’t precisely the most important fan of the characteristic when it launched, however listening to a few of Stage Supervisor’s backstory is fascinating. “Initially, I’m a heavy Stage Supervisor consumer on the Mac. Stage Supervisor is one thing that we began enthusiastic about and dealing on in 2009”, Federighi explains, including that it was initially conceived of as a means so as to add extra focus and circulation to Mac multitasking. Quick ahead to greater than a decade later, and “after a few years the place the ethos of the iPad is properly established”, Federighi says, “we felt somewhat extra flexibility to begin including in additional choices for individuals who want them whereas being safe in the concept that the app ecosystem in our developer base understands what an iPad app is and the way totally different that’s from what inertially would have been taking the traditional Mac world and simply dumping it on an iPad”.
The developer argument is an attention-grabbing one; it’s plain that, a minimum of at first, the iPad App Retailer stood out due to the unimaginable work third-party builders – and particularly indie builders – did when it comes to crafting novel, bespoke interfaces and interactions for iPad. Certainly, once I ask Federighi why Apple is bringing Mac-inspired multitasking options equivalent to limitless windowing and a menu bar to iPad now, moderately than a number of years in the past, he goes again to 2 core concepts: the developer ecosystem and efficiency.
“If iPad had had a menu bar from the start, like Mac did, app builders would naturally say, “Nicely, I believe a number of my performance in all probability is barely accessible by way of menu bar, proper?””, Federighi says. “These affordances present the set of constraints underneath which builders function and dictate, to a point, the character of what will get created. And with iPad, by creating an atmosphere that had very simplicity at its core, it meant your complete app ecosystem had all types of unimaginable design work finished by so many builders to protect the simplicity of that have”, he continues.
I perceive the attitude, and having been round for the golden period of the iPad App Retailer (bear in mind the unique Paper, Flipboard, Twitter, and so many others?), I can’t disagree. On the similar time, nonetheless, it’s additionally true that innovation on the iPad App Retailer has languished lately, with iPad-exclusive experiences now being too few and much between and often involving the Apple Pencil. It’s type of ironic that, proper now, a number of the strongest iPad apps are net apps moderately than native ones. Would this have been totally different had iPad supported Mac-like multitasking and windowing years in the past?
“In the event you take a look at the early iPads, they weren’t working on M4s and didn’t have the type of capability that we now have as we speak”, Federighi provides, noting that efficiency was additionally a constraint within the first iPad generations and that Apple is at all times going to prioritize the direct manipulation and interactivity of iPad above the rest. “That’s the non-negotiable in the entire thing”, he says.
Which brings us to the newest multitasking options of iPadOS 26, that are a serious step up from Stage Supervisor and see conventional Cut up View functionalities being built-in as “tiling” choices, similar to on macOS. However how did we get so far? Federighi says that Apple finally realized there have been two kinds of iPad customers. “What we’ve seen is that there are customers who’re at all times going to need the best iPad it may be, and we need to protect that for them: absolutely immersive, single window”, he begins. That’s the aforementioned crowd that’s by no means going to be keen on any type of multitasking in any respect.
However Federighi notes that they additionally noticed one other a part of the iPad viewers – people who needed specific management over all the things, with as many choices as they might have. “So we got here to the purpose of claiming, “Let’s acknowledge that viewers”. They’ve self-identified, in essence, proper?”, Federighi explains. “They usually have a set of expectations, and let’s give them the instruments to handle that world for themselves explicitly. They’ll recognize it, and we received’t get in there in the event that they don’t need it”.
In listening to Federighi’s evaluation of iPad multitasking through the years, I get the sense that Apple has been making an attempt to know the iPad’s viewers for over a decade. Sooner or later, they realized that the system has two kinds of customers: those that simply desire a pill, and people who desire a pill plus extra conventional computing options. The corporate tried to reinvent these traditional functionalities however in the end understood that some customers would moderately have traditional windowing, a file supervisor, and a menu bar that “merely” labored with both contact or oblique manipulation, moderately than fully new UI metaphors.
“I believe we’ve been on a journey of discovering the precise interface for iPad, together with our customers. And I believe it really has been essential that it’s been a thought-about journey”, Federighi says.
On macOS Familiarity, Design, and Creating “Sporks”
Past Liquid Glass (which I’ll cowl extra in depth later this summer season), iPadOS 26 feels just like the logical conclusion for a platform that should accommodate deeply totally different use instances. By default on a recent set up, iPadOS 26 will load in full-screen app mode – the traditional, authentic iPad expertise the place you employ one app at a time and return to the House Display to shut it, similar to on an iPhone. You possibly can, after all, nonetheless invoke the Dock, Highlight, or the Command-Tab switcher to maneuver between apps in ways in which aren’t supported on iOS, however by and huge, that is the closest the iPad’s inventory software program expertise has been to Steve Jobs’ authentic demo in 2010.
That’s not an exaggeration: with iPadOS 26, Apple simplified the full-screen app expertise even additional by eliminating the Cut up View and Slide Over modes altogether. I’ve used Cut up View and Slide Over for years and appreciated them quite a bit; actually, I began utilizing each modes much more after Stage Supervisor’s preliminary debacle. However these techniques weren’t excellent, both, significantly for customers who simply needed to make use of an iPad in full-screen mode with one app at a time. The gesture required to create splits – an extended press and drag on an app icon within the Dock – usually resulted in unintended activations of Cut up View for much less tech-savvy customers, who abruptly discovered themselves utilizing two apps as a substitute of 1. Plus, between full-screen mode, Cut up View, Slide Over, and Stage Supervisor, the iPad had ended up with too many multitasking techniques to select from.
So with iPadOS 26, the corporate went again to the drafting board. Below the brand new windowing engine, iPadOS 26 will default to full-screen apps till you allow the brand new ‘Windowed Apps’ mode in Settings or Management Heart. (I’d like to see a Shortcuts motion for this sooner or later, too.) While you accomplish that, the full-screen default nonetheless sticks: apps you open for the primary time will proceed to launch in full-screen mode, taking over your complete show.
You’ll discover a few variations, although. A full-screen app in windowed mode options the acquainted “seize indicator” within the bottom-right nook that permits you to seize a window together with your finger or pointer and resize it to any dimension you need – this time with fluid, Mac-like resizing that adjusts the window’s dimension body by body. And when you head together with your cursor to the highest fringe of a window (or swipe down together with your finger within the heart of it), you’ll see a menu bar and the acquainted pink, yellow, and inexperienced controls from macOS to shut, reduce, or maximize a window.
However that’s not all: in rethinking multitasking and windowing for iPadOS, Apple merged iOS 9’s authentic split-screen performance with windowed mode. Seize a window by the title bar – once more, in contrast to macOS, this works with each contact and the pointer – and flick it with the precise velocity to both facet of the display, and the window can be tiled to that facet. Seize one other, flick it in the other way, and the second window will tile subsequent to it. And whenever you do this, the outdated split-screen resize indicator will seem in between the break up home windows, permitting you – for the primary time on the iPad – to make a break up format any dimension you need with out having to select from mounted presets.
And there’s much more. Within the menu bar, you now have entry to a full-featured ‘Transfer & Resize’ menu that permits you to break up the display in halves, three columns (one thing I at all times needed from the outdated Cut up View), prime and backside tiles, and even quarters:
The menu can also be accessible, similar to on macOS, by long-pressing the window management buttons with both contact or the pointer:
You possibly can double-tap or double-click the title bar of any window to return to a earlier format. There are keyboard shortcuts to tile and organize home windows with out ever lifting your fingers off the keyboard. You possibly can create a number of, overlapping tile configurations and cycle between home windows with Command-Tab or – one other first on the iPad – correct Exposé. And at any level, you may forego any of the built-in tiling layouts to only…resize a window nonetheless you need and transfer it wherever you need – together with barely off-screen, which Stage Supervisor by no means allowed customers to do earlier than.
These are a lot of choices for energy customers who’ve lengthy demanded this sort of fine-grained management over app home windows and layouts. On the similar time, based mostly on my demos and first impressions of iPadOS 26 on my iPad Professional, this isn’t the type of system that forces – whether or not unintentionally or not – individuals who don’t need this iPad expertise to make use of it. And even when you’re a complicated consumer who desires to shortly do away with all of your home windows and return to a extra centered atmosphere, that’s straightforward to do as properly. With a swipe up on the House indicator, your workspace will quickly slide out of view, permitting you so as to add an app from the House Display by tapping its icon; swipe a second time, and also you’ll immediately clear your complete multi-window workspace, jettisoning all home windows again into the principle app switcher, every as soon as once more a standalone entity.
Seeing Apple straddle this line of “acquainted, however distinctive to iPad”, or maybe “easy by default, however really superior whenever you want it” bought me considering. I’ve lengthy believed that the iPad is concurrently probably the most versatile, thrilling pc type issue Apple has to design for and probably the most difficult . An iPad could be so many alternative issues to so many various kinds of customers. How do Apple designers resolve this rigidity between defaults and choices? How do they break from earlier UI conventions whereas additionally acknowledging the previous?
That is the place my dialog with Federighi goes subsequent, and the place Apple’s head of software program shares some acquainted – and barely modernized – metaphors.
“We don’t need to create a ship automotive or, you already know, a spork”, Federighi begins. Seeing the confused look on my face, he continues: “I don’t know if in case you have these in Italy. Somebody stated, “If a spoon’s nice, a fork’s nice, then let’s mix them right into a single utensil, proper?” It seems it’s not an excellent spoon and it’s not an excellent fork. It’s a nasty thought. And so we don’t need to construct sporks”.
This is the utensil he’s referring to, which I’ve seen on the Web earlier than. It’s not the primary time an Apple govt has used a kitchen equipment to explain the corporate’s method to moveable computer systems. In 2012, Tim Prepare dinner criticized Home windows 8 convertible pill/laptop computer hybrids by saying that you possibly can additionally attempt to merge toasters and fridges, however the end result in all probability wouldn’t be any good.
By and huge, one may argue that Apple has created one such convertible product with the iPad Professional, however Federighi strongly believes within the Mac and iPad every having their very own causes to exist. “The Mac lets the iPad be iPad”, Federighi notes, including that Apple’s goal “has not been to have iPad utterly displace these locations the place the Mac is the precise software for the job”. As somebody who just lately bought his arms on a high-end Mac Studio that has 512 GB of RAM and is ready to run state-of-the-art native LLMs, I can’t say I disagree with that concept. Plus, there are nonetheless loads of variations between macOS and iPadOS regardless of their new similarities, from sideloading and shell entry to Xcode, menu bar apps, system-wide keyboard shortcuts, the new Highlight, and extra. I’d personally like these variations to vanish, too, however for now, the 2 OSes obtain totally different objectives.
Federighi additionally desires to broaden upon the boat automotive metaphor, although. “Way back, a sensible man who had quite a bit to do with the actual fact we’re all right here as we speak talked about vehicles and vehicles”, he begins, referencing Steve Jobs’ well-known analogy from the D8 convention in 2010. “It’s superior that the iPad could be the each day driver for therefore many individuals, however that doesn’t want a winch tied to the entrance of it, a trailer hitched to tow a ship within the again, and a flatbed with, you already know, ties on the again”, he continues. “Now, somebody’s going to say, ‘However I bought this factor and I like driving it, and might’t I simply haul my boat and lumber?’ And in some unspecified time in the future, what you’d should do to that factor to make it do this, you’ve misplaced its essence”.
I can say that I’ve been responsible of this myself. Through the years, I’ve finished issues to my iPads that no sane particular person ought to in all probability ever try, from mounting audio system to its sides to actually ripping a MacBook Air in half and attaching it to the underside of an iPad Professional to create my very own “MacPad” hybrid. These experiments have been born out of necessity. I simply needed to have a extra highly effective iPad that might enable me to carry out the identical duties I may on my Mac. Now with iPadOS 26, I get to have my cake and eat it too: I can nonetheless use a product that’s each a pill and a laptop computer, however because of Apple’s “cautious exploration”, I may also have entry to full-blown windowing, native audio and video seize, folder entry from the Dock, a menu bar, and much extra.
Nonetheless, how did Apple land there? After all of the discuss over the previous 15 years in regards to the “post-PC period”, why have we come full circle to reusing options and UI metaphors that the Mac bought proper a long time in the past? I ask Federighi about this. “While you’re designing in a brand new area with a brand new set of constraints with a special type of consumer in thoughts, you do protect yourself in opposition to whether or not it might be too straightforward to only pull the outdated factor off the shelf and put it right here as a result of possibly that feels proper, as a result of we’ve lived with it since 1984”, he begins, acknowledging the Mac’s key position in democratizing graphical consumer interfaces and freeform windowing. “And also you ask your self”, Federighi continues “’Nicely, however what’s the essence of iPad? And if that different world had by no means existed and one had designed from first ideas for a touch-first system…what would a cursor be like? What would windowing be like?’”.
It’s the primary time I hear Apple’s head of software program discuss in regards to the iPad’s software program design course of so intentionally, and it’s totally fascinating. As we’ve seen in my annual iOS and iPadOS critiques, Apple did attempt to “design from first ideas” on the iPad: they did so in iOS 9, iOS 11, iPadOS 13, and iPadOS 16. So what occurred in iPadOS 26?
“On the similar time, it’s a must to not be allergic to studying from the previous”, Federighi provides. “I believe the stability we’ve landed on now’s saying, ‘Hear, within the case that the precise reply for iPad is a constant one with one other system, the Mac, then, after all, let’s use it. However let’s not attain for one thing on the Mac reflexively, simply because it’s there’”.
The phrase we preserve going again to on this interview is “stability”. The iPad has, traditionally, at all times been a balancing act for Apple, from the very first keynote when Steve Jobs needed to clarify the “third class” it represented to now, when Federighi is speaking about balancing the wants of various customers, balancing familiarity and consistency within the consumer interface design, and balancing options between macOS and iPadOS. Talking of consistency – one other central theme of this yr’s WWDC – Federighi tells me that “absolute consistency can be to optimize for nothing” once I ask him about how Apple weighs the concept of constant design throughout platforms in opposition to the truth that, in line with them, every system of their lineup has its personal cause to be. “We wish consistency the place it is sensible, however we tailor these experiences to every system”, he provides.
I don’t must ask Federighi the perennial query of working macOS on the iPad, since he goes there on his personal. “I don’t assume the iPad ought to run macOS, however I believe the iPad could be impressed by components of the Mac”, Federighi tells me. “I believe the Mac could be impressed by components of iPad, and I believe that that’s occurred a fantastic deal”.
On iPad Criticism Over the Years
I’m not new to iPad criticism. Within the years I’ve coated this platform, I’ve seen the iPad narrative ebb and circulation in numerous instructions. There have been the Mac customers who have been adamant that you just weren’t “imagined to” carry out sure duties on an iPad. There have been iPad customers who, like me, have been steadfast of their conviction that there was potential for rethinking traditional computing options by placing a singular spin on them. And there was Apple, navigating these waters with an ever-growing assortment of desktop-class functionalities that, regardless of their greatest efforts, typically felt like half-baked makes an attempt at reinventing a wheel that maybe didn’t want a lot reinventing within the first place. A “journey”, certainly.
Final yr, I made a decision to publish a complete story about all of the shortcomings of iPadOS I encountered when making an attempt to handle recordsdata, file podcasts, or, on the whole, get all my work finished on an iPad. I used to be very crucial of the state of iPadOS on the time as a result of I felt that Apple had dropped the ball on key options that I thought-about important for a pc known as the “iPad Professional”.
The response to that story was, to say the least, polarizing. Some Mac customers noticed it as a vindication of their longstanding beliefs, and I learn feedback from individuals who cited the story as “proof” that Apple didn’t care in regards to the iPad in any respect and was simply coasting to promote costlier gadgets. Some iPad customers noticed the article as a “betrayal” from somebody who had devoted a big a part of his profession to masking the platform. And one other group – individuals who, like me, beloved the iPad however have been disillusioned by its lack of progress – properly, they didn’t know what to assume, however remained longing for its future.
And that is my likelihood to ask Federighi about his relationship with totally different customers and harsh iPad criticism through the years. Once I ask him how he reacts to feedback from individuals who counsel that Apple of us don’t use the iPad internally or don’t care in regards to the product in any respect, he says with “bafflement”. “Disappointment, within the sense that we’re making an attempt to construct nice merchandise that delight our customers, and our iPads do delight our customers”, he provides, citing the proverbial “excellent” buyer satisfaction that has lengthy characterised the iPad’s lineup in line with Apple.
Federighi, nonetheless, is conscious of the truth that totally different iPad customers need to see various things from the platform – once more, we’re going again to that concept of two macro classes within the iPad’s viewers. “Persons are obsessed with these gadgets, and also you’ll have somebody who says, ‘Nicely, they didn’t deal with the factor I care about most this yr. So clearly they don’t use this product’”, Federighi notes.
I perceive why he rejects this notion, however talking from private expertise, I do know that it was onerous to see the forest for the timber when iPadOS was going a number of years (iPadOS 14, 15, 17, and 18) with out noticeable updates – very a lot in contrast to iPadOS 26 this yr. “I get it at some degree”, Federighi provides, “and we do take that on board, however we do additionally take accountability for stewarding a platform meaning a lot, not simply to that particular person, however to so many others”.
Having spent the previous week with the iPadOS 26 developer beta on my 13” iPad Professional, I believe Apple – for the primary time in a number of years – has discovered that stability between simplicity and energy that the iPad platform so badly wanted. I criticized the sluggish progress of iPadOS quite a bit through the years, however after final week and speaking to Federighi, it’s clear to me that people at Apple have been enthusiastic about these challenges for a very long time. Touchdown on a fantastic resolution for everybody usually takes time, with some missteps alongside the way in which.
“You make robust decisions yearly about the place you prioritize and the way you evolve and what’s the precise second to tackle what problem, and you’re taking the lengthy view”, Federighi tells me. “iPad didn’t grow to be what it’s as we speak in a single yr and even 5, and we’re in it for the lengthy haul right here”.
The iPad’s Essence
We’re nearly on the finish of the interview, and I discover a few issues. Identical to he was the primary time I interviewed him in San Jose for our podcast AppStories, Federighi is – and I imply this in the absolute best means – a nice nerd to speak to. I’ve picked up on this through the years. He has a high quality that’s uncommon in tech executives: he can go very in depth about technical subjects, however he doesn’t thoughts the philosophical, summary subjects both. I may go on and on, however my time is restricted, and that is how these interviews work.
The second factor I discover is that I nonetheless haven’t requested my easy – maybe trite, however essential to me, regardless – query: what’s an iPad in 2025 in line with Craig Federighi? I remind Federighi of my story with the iPad. I began utilizing it as my essential pc in 2012, once I was present process most cancers therapies and realized I couldn’t comfortably use a MacBook Air from a hospital mattress. Then, even after I used to be previous these well being points, I selected to maintain utilizing the iPad as a result of I’d fallen in love with what it represented: really moveable, modular computing that might assist me keep productive, related, and entertained anyplace. The iPad has, in some ways, outlined my profession, and it nonetheless represents all these issues for me – regardless of its ups and downs through the years – in 2025.
However, as soon as once more, what is an iPad now for Craig Federighi?
“I believe Apple would describe it as a magical piece of glass, the place you may maintain your content material in your hand, and our most versatile system, the place you may work together with that content material within the best number of methods”, he begins after a quick pause. I can sense that he’s not finished. What follows is – from my perspective – the most effective description of the iPad I’ve heard in 15 years.
“For me, I’ve, such as you, an emotional attachment to my iPad and I’m unsure I can intellectualize it. I don’t know if it’s as a result of it’s one thing that, by the character of the truth that it’s in your hand, it’s the supply of connection. It’s the supply of studying. It’s this supply of functionality; it turns into an extension of your individual means to assume and remedy issues”, Federighi says. I look down at my watch, and I do know that we’re primarily out of time.
“It’s the system that may handle to go along with us into nearly each nook and cranny of our existence, from kicking again and having fun with ourselves to getting one thing finished, creatively or productively. That vary makes it an extension of self for a few of us in a means that I believe fosters an emotional connection. I believe that’s the reason, for these of us that find yourself with that deep connection, it’s pure we preserve eager to push it additional, proper?”, he concludes.
I step exterior the glass ring, the cool morning gusts of Apple Park now a pleasing, nearly Mediterranean breeze. I take into consideration the place I began with the iPad in 2012, when that pc allowed me to get work finished regardless of the chemo. I take a look at this interview’s transcript on my M4 iPad Professional and notice: the iPad’s essence is alive at Apple, and this platform’s in good arms.
