“Facing slowing growth for the first time since the iPad’s 2010 debut, Apple is working on several significant software and hardware updates to reinvigorate the tablet over the next year,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac.
“Apple is developing a dual-app viewing mode, 12-inch iPads codenamed ‘J98’ and ‘J99,’ as well as support for multi-user logins, according to sources briefed on the plans,” Gurman reports. “First planned for debut last year, the split-screen applications feature for the iPad could be introduced as soon as June at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, while multi-user login support and the 12-inch iPads will apparently arrive later.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sometimes, it’s painful how long some things take with a company the size of Apple.
Multiple user support we can see being delayed in part because Apple has enough problems with iPad sales that making one or two iPads work for the entire family obviously wouldn’t exactly be conducive to promoting iPad sales.
But, just as with properly-sized iPhone displays, Apple is at least a year, and likely two, (and counting) behind with dual-screen support as well as with larger iPads, both of which could spur and already should have spurred significant sales, especially in the enterprise arena upon which Apple now seems focused along with IBM.
Sometimes, it seems that although Apple has 98,000 employees worldwide, only 98 of them do (or are authorized to do) any of the real work.
Gurman reports that “Apple reprioritized its software engineering resources to finish up the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch, opting to cut the split-screen app feature for the time being, and reassign the majority of the engineers who were working on it.”
Why would such a thing be necessary with a company of Apple’s size in 2015? This isn’t 1997, it only feels that way sometimes.
Yeah!👀💥🎉🎊😱😜😍👍
Give user access to the file system, enable browser plugins (like desktop Safari), allow us to delete Newsstand and other Apple apps that should never be bundled with the OS and allow apps to directly access storage devices plugged in via the Lightning connector.
Would be a nice start.
In other words, “Make it a Mac.”
Not quite but in some regards yes, the fact is anyone using a Mac gets frustrated with some inherent limitations when working with the iPad. This is clearly deliberate on the part of Apple to stop,it from taking Mac sales and to stop it truly competing and I understand that. However fundamentally hobbling it to being primarily a media device has to a very great degree been responsible for the slow down in sales because there is little point in replacing such a device for relatively small gains.
I have been crying out for split screen support even before I saw it on other devices. It is fundamentally vital to take the iPad up a level and stimulate sales because it so makes sense for a fundamentally touch and drag based platform. Seems a bit of an irony to me to trying to keep it separate it from a Mac while forcing upon it a strictly menu based and clunky interaction between apps and communication generally when with split screen it could truly exploit the touch environment more directly in a far more immersive and intuitive way especially combined with force touch.
They know what we want. And they know how we are. They know we’re Apple loyal… and they know exactly to what extent. And just when we start to look out of the corner of our eyes at other products… BOOM! That feature you’ve been wanting forever suddenly appears.
Apple is like a highly skilled courtesan. She knows what you want, knows what you need, and knows when to give it to you.
Sometimes;)
I’d like to get rid of things like Game Centre………
Could not agree more MDN !
Body count is not how an INTELLIGENT firm such as Apple assigns projects. There are creative people and there are many others involved in any technical endeavor. Looking at sheer number of people does not in any way tell a complete story.
Exactly. Microsoft has about 30,000 more employees than Apple, and develops much less hardware, but does a greater number of employees mean Microsoft software is better or is developed faster than Apple’s software?
Please stop laughing, the answer is “No”.
The point is that Apple has a limited number of coders and software engineers who work on iOS, and those are divided into various teams who work on specific parts of the OS: Some on networking, some on UI, some on database handling, etc. Just throwing a thousand more coders and engineers onto a project about which they know very little is not going to help speed things up, it’s going to slow things down and add errors and bugs to the product.
Patience, iPadawans. The Apple is with you . . . always.
It’s not the quantity, but the qulity that matters…
It’s not the quantity, but the quality that matters…
Ironic
Split screen is good but we need resizable windows..
We need serious ram.
We need a serious flexible file managment system .
We need capability to run full fleged applications not waterded down apps.
We need an accurate input device ( the rumored stylus maybe?)
Given the above we will have a pro divice.
Larger screen and split screen alone does not make it a pro .
What i would really want is a convertable hybrid macbook with adaptive dual Os.
And the new slim macbook proves the technology is there to get it done and be practical and sweet 🙂
You already have the device you want: It’s called a MacBook. It already runs OS X, has serious RAM, a flexible file management system, resizable windows, full-fledged apps, and an accurate input device.
It’s like buying a sports car and installing a roof-rack w/cargo carrier, a hitch, lifted suspension, and big knobby tires. Just use a damn truck if you need a truck and stop trying to turn my sports car into a truck!