iPadOS Isn't Just a Name. It's a New Direction for Apple
One of the defining moments of Apple's WWDC keynote earlier this week was when Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, declared that the iPad would now have its own operating system. "The time has come to recognize the platform in a special way," he said.
This new operating system comes with a new name: iPadOS. Never mind that this new nomenclature had been leaked just hours before the reveal when it appeared in the language of Apple's own licensing agreement. The bigger picture remains: The iPad is getting its own native operating system. When iPadOS arrives this fall, it will be a pivotal moment for Apple's tablet. The iPad will no longer run iOS, and will no longer be just a giant iPhone. It will become, at last, something else.
But if you happen to go into Settings on an iPad running the not-yet-released iPadOS and look up which software version it's running, it will say iOS 13. Not iPadOS. (At least, that's what it says right now on a demo unit I saw; that may change when it launches in the fall.) The iPad's new software shares the same kernel as iOS and macOS, and it supports the same app framework as iOS. It is still, effectively, iOS. So why call it "iPadOS"?
