Apple Explains Why Stage Manager is Limited to M1 iPads in New Statement

[hans1972]

It could be a win win if Apple simply showed how bad it would be on the A12X/Z iPad Pros. If Apple were actually honest to begin with, being transparent about it can push more people to upgrade.

No, Apple should have no duty to explain itself or demonstrate what they say is true.

Either you trust Apple or you don't. If you don't trust them and even think they're lying or misleading you, why are you a customer? I would never be a customer of a company I don't trust unless I have no choice.

Apple's domain is to create their products and services. Customers should have no say in how they do this at all. There should be a Chinese wall between the development and customers.

Customer's domain is to buy the products. Or not. Apple should not interfere here. I would be completely against any law or regulation which gave Apple the power to force customers to buy their products.

 

[Wildkraut]

I've just swallowed the - somewhat bitter - pill.

I'll be going out to pick up my newly ordered M1 iPad Air from the store in a couple of minutes.
Then do the migration and prepare to sell my 4th Air.

On the positive side, the new air's 5G cellular support will provide more future-proof.
This iPad should finally last me a couple of years.

I also resisted getting the new (2021) mini to replace my previous generation mini as my daily driver.

Apples marvelous plan worked out, have fun with Stage Manager.

 

[ppj845]

all intel macs will be the next. 2023 Mac OS only supports apple silicon. I’m sure they can find a reason for it

 

[dzankizakon]

Don't see the attraction of Stage Manager, to be honest. It takes up too much screen real estate.

 

[hans1972]

You just don’t understand these complainers. They want Apple to act like some other company that gives away fee software for 10 years. They know Apple and keep wishing that Apple would turn into a different company. Rather than leave, they keep wishing.

Lot's of people on this forum has a very dysfunctional relationship with Apple.

They dislike almost everything Apple does and are still customers year after year. It's like they are in an abusive marriage and don't know how to file for a divorce and move out.

 

[Wildkraut]

Apple creates software that takes advantage of features only available to the newest models. It’s how they incentivize you to dump older models that could have certainly had very similar features run on them but that would make you want to keep the older model longer. Apple has been doing this sort of thing for years. It’s not about what features make your computer work better, it’s about what features can get you to buy a new computer this year. They are there to make sales, everything else is spin and marketing.

In other words, planed obsolescence.

 

[odonnelly99]

Maybe, but why try to make new features work with old hardware that is approaching end of support?

I get it, nice for the customer, but as far as apple is concerned, it is adding complexity to the codebase for hardware that won't be viable for many more years.

And un-necessary complexity in software is a major source of bugs.

I hope to god the 2020 iPad Pro isn’t “approaching end of support.”

In case some aren’t aware, it’s currently 2022, lol.

Also, my M1 Pro has 8GB of RAM — only 2GB more than the 2020 Pro, and which is 8GB less than the higher specced M1 Pros.

Conclusion: I’m going to take a nap.

 

[hans1972]

Apple ran the entirety of macOS for devs in a Mac Mini with an A12Z Chip

Get out of here with this patronizing nonsense LOL 😆

Which had 16Gb of RAM.

Why do you think the CPU performance is the bottleneck?

 

[hans1972]

So you are telling me that back in the old days when computers only have 1 or 2GB of (much slower) memory, with CPUs much slower than something like the A9X in the first 9.7 iPad Pro, they can't do multi-window or multitasking operations? 🤨

People's lives in those days must be horrible!!!!!

The applications and the OS used much less memory then.

Hey, opening up a web page can use 1Gb of RAM these days.

 

[canadianreader]

Apple’s statement does not explain much. I think the simple answer is Apple wants us to upgrade to a new M1 iPad. Anyone remember the support for Siri.

Yes they want to sell more M1 iPads. Hopefully some legislation will force them to open their closed ecosystem then some devs will create apps like Stage Manager that run on older models.

 

[ppj845]

Lot's of people on this forum has a very dysfunctional relationship with Apple.

They dislike almost everything Apple does and are still customers year after year. It's like they are in an abusive marriage and don't know how to file for a divorce and move out.

It’s the sex

 

[Realityck]

Which had 16Gb of RAM.

Why do you think the CPU performance is the bottleneck?

Apple could have further constrained the number of windows allowed if only 8GB ram was available you think for iPadOS Stage Manager?

 

[hans1972]

40 years ago computers with 33 MEGAHERTZ processors and 64 KILOBYTES of RAM had SNAPPY windows and preemptive multitasking AND SMOOTH SCROLLING. Don't believe me? Find someone with an Amiga 1000 and have them fire it up off the 800KB floppy disk. Apple is that special combination of smiling while lying sociopathy and authoritarian incompetence, which in the modern world makes them the richest company in the world.

Did a web page use 1Gb of RAM back then?

 

[ppj845]

Did a web page use 1Gb of RAM back then?

Same website can still open on a 4G RAM Mac though. My Macbook Air 2014 runs quite smoothly with Chrome as browser and multiple apps open.

 

[hans1972]

What was the point of Selling these as pro devices when they couldn’t do any more than the entry level iPad.

Pro =Better performant hardware (usually) and more expensive.


These iPads were not designed to run several memory hungre applications at once. If you needed that Apple offered Macs.

 

[xraydoc]

A true macOS-like file system is way more important than this fluff. Store Manager is little more than form over function. Even the M1 iPads are nearly useless for office style work (programming, spreadsheets, documentation, presentations, etc.). iPadOS is a dog, and pushing features like Store Manager instead of a real fie system and better input capability is a waste of time.

Not true in my case. I can do a significant amount of my office work on my iPad. And Stage Manager solves a problem I had with presentation creation/editing with PowerPoint and Keynote — being able to have the presentation in one big window and an image picker handy in another. Combine that with external display support, and reasons to use my MacBook Air instead just diminished again.

My 12.9” M1 iPad Pro is gaining functionality while still maintaining its tablet and finger-friendly roots (unlike a Windows Surface device or trying to shoehorn macOS on to an iPad — though that would be cool).

Granted, I don’t do any coding, so that’s not a limitation that applies to me.

Now, if Apple were to stuff an M1 into an iPad mini or an iPhone Max with pencil support and give it iPadOS 16…. Imagine carrying your whole main computer in your pocket and just docking it to your monitor at work and monitor at home…

 

[citysnaps]

Selling a device they knew they couldn't support for a decade is nefarious. Apple markets iPads as computers. Computers should see more than one February 29th.

Nice deflection not addressing what I said.

Silicon technology marches on. As a result that means there will be some new features implemented to take advantage of that technology, and not available with older silicon in older devices.

Older device will still work, but without some new features that require more advanced silicon.

If you believe Apple is somehow being nefarious, that would be a great opportunity to vote with your wallet and find happiness with competitor tech hardware providers. Will you do it?

 

[Jim Lahey]

Apple: Too many buyers are not willing to upgrade past the 2018 Pro.
Also Apple: Fortunately for us, there’s over 6 billion people in the world that have never bought an iPad before!

Right. So Apple is incapable of making business decisions that cajole existing owners into upgrading their equipment when it might not be an engineering necessity. Because "loads of other people still haven't bought an iPad yet"

 

[hans1972]

it’s called lazy programming and purely based on business strategy.

It's the essence of being a great programmer.

I would never trust a programmer which isn't lazy in their programming.

The next most important ability is hubris or arrogance.

 

[Aston441]

Did a web page use 1Gb of RAM back then?

There wqs no web. And all of humanity was better for it.

 

[hans1972]

Far less capable laptops have been doing proper 2nd screen support for many years now so there is no reason the older iPad Pro’s cannot do this properly. This is an iPadOS release from the bean counters not the engineers.

Maybe there is something in the way A-series SoCs were designed which makes it difficult to implement more than one screen?

The M1 and M2 only support two screens (including internal) on the Mac side, while M1 Pro/Max/Ultra supports three screens.

It seems Apple ARM CPUs haven't really been optimised for a lot of screens.

 

[darngooddesign]

that only means that Apple hardware is inferior to 200$ netbook class of devices.
I pity those that paid 1500$ for a "pro" machine that can't handle multi tasking... And still missing a torrent client. Think of that. You can't even run the software you choose to run.

Well I can't run software that you choose to run.

No torrenting... oh noes!!!

 

[Joe Dohn]

People: "We have these M1 chips in iPads, but they are not used to their full potential. Why would the iPad even have an M1 chip inside? Apple, give us something that is built for all that power, give me a reason to buy an M1 iPad!"

Apple gives us something that is built for all that power and a reason to buy an M1 iPad.

People: "Why doesn't it work on older chips, though?"

So you're saying multitasking, which exists at least since Windows 3.1, ONLY WORKS ON THE M1 iPad?
Seriously, what's wrong with you people?

 

[Joe Dohn]

First, people talking about smoothly moving and resizing windows on old computers are forgetting that you were usually working with an outline of the window, not the full contents of the window itself. They didn’t have the power to perform the calculations to do it live for a good decade or two.

If the iPad has such poor computing power it can't render a Window being resized in real time (hint: it can), then why doesn't Apple just show the outline, as in Windows 9x, and then just redraw it where it should be?

I don't think many users would be so mad with such a proposition...

 

[whirldy]

Please forgive my asking: did Apple (anyone) explicitly mention that Stage Manager is limited to M1 iPads/tvOS in the "state of the union"?