The Stage Manager controversy doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, despite Apple’s attempts to explain its reasoning for limiting functionality to iPad M1s.
I expressed my own disappointment that my 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2018 did not get the function, but it is an even bigger blow for those who bought a 2020 model, only to discover that it is excluded from the main function of iPadOS 16 just two years. later…
The controversy of the stage director
When Apple announced Stage Manager, it said the feature was “enabled by the power of the M1 chip.” This is the kind of marketing statement the company often makes, so many of us didn’t read much of it at the time.
In the subsequent press release, all Apple had to say about it was:
Available on iPad Pro and iPad Air with M1 chip
No explanation was given at the time, and iPad owners speculated.
Apple’s vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, later offered this explanation:
According to Federighi, the M1 iPads were the only models that could meet these expectations thanks to their increased RAM, faster storage, and support for virtual memory sharing. Explained:
“It is only the M1 iPads that combined high capacity DRAM with very high capacity and high NAND performance that allows our virtual memory exchange to be very fast,” says Federighi. “Now that we allow you to have up to four apps on one board plus four others – up to eight apps to respond instantly and have a lot of memory, we just don’t have that capability on other systems.”
Federighi also noted that only M1 iPads can support the full range of external display features due to the Thunderbolt port. Graphic performance also played a role in that decision, he added.
“When you put all of this together, we can’t offer the full Stage Manager experience in any minor system,” Federighi says. “I mean, we’d like to make it available everywhere. But that’s what it requires. That’s the experience we’re going to bring to the future. We didn’t want to limit our design to something minor, we’re setting the benchmark for the future.” .
Some owners were skeptical that their iPad A12X Bionic or A12Z Bionic could not cope with Stage Manager, especially considering that the A12Z chip was powerful enough to run macOS in Apple’s Mac mini Developer Transition Kit.
However, others pointed out that RAM could be the explanation here. The DTK had 16GB of RAM versus 4GB (2018) or 6GB (2020) for the iPad Pro.
Developer Guilherme Rambo said other factors could also be at stake.
However, there is a difference between a developer kit and a consumer product. Especially considering that the DTK was packaged as a Mac mini, which did not have a battery that could run out, and destroying the flash storage with swap was not a concern due to its already limited lifespan.
But this is not a binary problem
All of this seems credible to me. It is simply not possible to run the Stage Manager feature on iPad Pro A12X / A12Z models with the level of capacity and performance that the company wants to offer. That the company’s motives are good, and not based on wanting to sell more iPads.
But…
This is not a binary issue. It’s not the case that Stage Manager doesn’t work on iPad Pro 2018-2020 models; is that, in Federighi’s words, non-M1 models can’t offer “the full Stage Manager experience.” That would involve some degree of commitment.
This compromise could simply be that older iPads can’t offer the smoothness and smooth animations of M1 models. They may not have enough RAM to handle eight applications. They may not have enough external screen bandwidth without Thunderbolt to provide a sleek experience for connected monitors.
My bet is that most iPad Pro 2018-2020 owners would rather have limited Stage Manager experience than none. We accept four applications instead of eight. We would accept simpler animation. We would accept a slightly slower change (and let’s be honest, every performance boost offered by each new generation of apps is barely noticeable in anything other than games, so the speed difference would be slight).
So my opinion is that Apple should simply have warned owners of iPad Pro A12X / A12Z models that they will get a limited version of the feature, which will not match the capabilities and speed of the M1 versions. No one would have a problem with that, and there would be no Stage Manager controversy.
This affects confidence in the longevity of Apple devices
One of the benefits of buying Apple devices has always been their longevity. We’ve been able to buy an iPhone, an iPad, or a Mac, knowing that it will be compatible with software updates for over 5 years and will remain perfectly usable for much longer.
Leaving aside those of us who are prone to the lust of gadgets, most typical Apple customers will keep a Mac for 5-7 years, some for 10 years, and that’s something completely realistic. IPads may date a little faster, but again it has been perfectly feasible to keep one for five years or more.
Of course, switching from Intel to Apple Silicon chips on the Mac was a game changer. The difference in both performance and battery life was so great that it was quite understandable that it represented a division between the old and the new generations. It may be shit to be someone who bought the last Mac with Intel, but that change was inevitable.
But the same kind of watershed doesn’t exist with the iPad. IPads already worked with chips designed by Apple and the difference between A12X, A12Z and M1 is evolutionary, not revolutionary.
So I think it’s quite understandable that 2018 iPad owners like me are a little upset and that 2020 model owners may be very upset because their two-year-old high-end models are denied the key function of iPad.
There’s still time to end the stage manager controversy
This does not have to be a deal breaker. Apple is a stubborn company that doesn’t change its decisions often, but it does happen from time to time when there is enough commotion or enough pressure.
Honestly, I think this would be Apple’s best bet right now. Make a limited version of Stage Manager available for iPad Pro A12X / A12Z models, with the limitations and expectations management you deem appropriate.
At the very least, include it in beta so people can see for themselves how it works.
This is my opinion; and how about yours? Please take our survey and share your thoughts in the comments.
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