This year, iPadOS 16 arrives about a month after iOS 16 for iPhone, and iPad fans are going to be thrilled.

Apple has few constrained schedules these days. Now that it controls all the hardware and software inside its devices, it can release things when they’re ready, and not before. Except for the iPhone. Apple announces a new version of its biggest moneymaker every September, and with that comes the latest version of iOS and iPadOS, ready or not. This year, Apple has decided that iPadOS 16 needs more time and will most likely release it alongside this year’s version of macOS in October. This is great news, because the iPad is becoming more and more like the Mac every year.

“The new additions: Stage Manager, full support for external displays, Reference Mode, Display Zoom, and virtual memory swapping are proof [that Apple is really serious about the next 'pro' software phase of iPadOS],” iOS and Mac app developer Stavros Zavrakas told Lifewire via email.

To see the dangers of releasing software before it’s ready, we go back to the fall of 2019 and the disastrous launch of iOS 13. Along with the usual raft of new features, Apple made significant changes to iCloud integration and functionality, but ultimately scrapped many of these changes before launch. It also had security holes and was generally glitchy.