Stage Manager is a window into the future of the iPad-a broken one

Stage Manager is too important for Apple to get this wrong.

- JASON SNELL

With iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura threatening to W arrive later this month, we're on the precipice the arrival of one of the biggest new features added to the iPad and Mac in recent years: Stage Manager.

For Mac users, Stage Manager is an optional feature that might or might not improve productivity and organization. No big deal! Use it or don't. Meanwhile, for the iPad, the feature is practically an existential crisis (fave.co/3TRNuCu).

Put simply, Stage Manager is a big deal for the iPad because it gives it windows for the first time, while the Mac has been a window-based computing device since Steve Jobs first took it out of that bag in early 1984. And that contrast gets to the core of why putting Stage Manager on the iPad is a much bigger job than adding it to the Mac.

FROM THE GROUND UP

Anyone who used the Mac in 1984 and was magically transported to a Mac in 2022 would certainly be amazed and discombobulated by the advances of technology in 38 years, but that Mac would still be recognizable: draggable and resizable windows, a menu bar, and even a close box (joined by two others) in the upper left corner.

Of course, over the years, Mac windowing has evolved. When I became a Mac user, you couldn't really use more than one Mac app at once. But shortly thereafter, System 7 introduced full-on multitasking, and our Mac screens filled with windows from all sorts of different apps running at the same time. Apple introduced a series of task switchers, Mac OS X 10.0 added the Dock and the three stoplight buttons, and in later updates added the ability to manage windows with Exposé, Spaces, and Mission Control.