Stage Manager only on iPad M1: Craig Federighi (Apple) justifies himself

One of the new features in iPadOS 16 is Stage Manager and support is only on iPads with an M1 chip. This naturally bothers users who have recent iPads without this chip because they won’t be able to take advantage of it. Apple has already tried to give an explanation. Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president in charge of iOS and macOS, today justifies the choice regarding support.

Why Stage Manager is only available on iPad M1?

Stage Manager allows users to resize applications in overlapping windows for an enhanced multitasking experience. The feature also supports an external display, allowing users to work with up to eight apps simultaneously (up to four apps on the iPad and up to four apps on the external display).

Craig Federighi explains to TechCrunch that the power of the M1 chip ensures that all applications used in Stage Manager are instantly responsive. According to his words, “only iPad M1s combined the high capacity of DRAM [mémoire vive dynamique] with the very high capacity and high performance of the storage [NAND] which allows our virtual memory swap to be super fast”. He adds that iPadOS 16 lets users have up to eight apps to be instantly responsive. “We just don’t have that capability on other systems,” said the leader.

iPad Pro and iPad Air with the M1 chip can have up to 16 GB of RAM. By comparison, the previous-generation iPad Pro has 6GB of RAM and half the speed of storage, according to Apple.

“We really designed Stage Manager to take full advantage of [de la puce M1] »continues Craig Federighi. “If you look at how apps tilt and shade, and how they animate on entry and exit. To do this at super high frame rates, on very large screens and multiple displays requires cutting-edge graphics performance that no one else can provide,” the framework justifies itself.

Another proposal on Mac

“When you put it all together, we can’t deliver the full Stage Manager experience on an inferior system”he added. “We would like to make it available wherever we can. But that’s what it takes. This is the experience that we will carry in the future. We didn’t want to limit our design to anything less, we’re setting the benchmark for the future”.

You should know that Stage Manager will also be available on Mac with macOS Ventura. Craig Federighi notes that there are already several ways to have a multitasking experience with the Mac, emphasizing that anyone can do as they see fit. “If 20% of Mac users end up saying this is another great tool in their quiver, that’s fantastic,” did he declare.