Will the IPad Ever Be a Worthy Replacement for the Mac?
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For the first five years of its existence, the iPad could only run one app at a time. Then iOS 9 changed everything . Released 10 years ago this month, the update introduced multitasking to an Apple tablet for the first time. Split View let you run two apps side by side; Slide Over provided quick access to a third app in a window similar to the iPhone; and Picture-in-Picture mode let you watch videos while working on something else. In an article published at the time, Lifehacker declared that “iOS 9 actually makes the iPad usable for work.”
In total, this set of features allowed up to four different windows to be displayed simultaneously on the screen, significantly exceeding the previous limit of one window. Combined with new keyboard shortcuts, iOS 9 transformed the iPad and brought it closer to the laptop replacement many users desired. “Zoom in” is the key word here.
Multitasking on iPad is still a work in progress.
While iOS 9 made it possible to focus on multiple apps simultaneously, it didn’t address other iPad limitations that hindered the full transition of computer users to iPad. In the 11 years since that update, Apple has slowly but surely addressed these issues while exponentially improving iPad hardware. In iOS 11, Apple made it easier to launch apps in split-screen mode from the Dock and introduced drag-and-drop between apps. In iPadOS 13, Apple introduced a desktop-like version of Safari and released the Files app, which even supported hard drives and SD cards. iPadOS 15 improved the accessibility of split-screen and Slide Over modes and allowed multitasking with multiple windows from a single app.
By the release of iPadOS 16 , Apple seemed fed up with user complaints that the iPad wasn’t Mac-like enough. This update introduced Stage Manager, allowing users to display and resize multiple floating app windows on the screen. You could even connect a compatible iPad to an external monitor to run Stage Manager on both displays, just like connecting a MacBook to a monitor. iPadOS 17 further improved the user experience by adding support for FaceTime calls from external webcams, and last year’s iPadOS 26 received another overhaul , introducing a window system that closely resembled macOS, right down to the traffic light-style window management buttons.
We’ve reached the point where, at first glance, the iPad could be considered Apple’s answer to the touchscreen, especially when paired with a keyboard and trackpad. But in practice, it’s clear that the iPad still isn’t a Mac, even when it supports the apps and utilities you use on a Mac. iPadOS doesn’t feel designed for computing; it feels like computing tasks have been adapted for iPadOS. This doesn’t mean features like multitasking and file support aren’t welcome, but the user experience isn’t as polished as macOS. Furthermore, there’s evidence that Apple agrees the two devices are too different, as rumors suggest the company could release a touchscreen MacBook as early as next year .
For me personally, iPadOS still works best when I’m using just one app at a time. Putting aside all the aforementioned attempts to change its nature, that’s probably because the iPad was designed that way from the start.