Back in early 2015 I asked Apple and the world a question: “What if the iPad ran iPadOS?” At the time, iPad may not have been quote-unquote just a big iPod touch, but it wasn’t much more than an iPod touch gone IMAX.

Then, slowly, every couple of years, it started getting exclusive features like Side-by-Side apps and Picture-in-Picture video. Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. Multi-window Drag-and-Drop and workspaces. But, only every couple of years.

Because the iPad didn’t have its own OS like the Mac, the Watch, or even the TV, Apple wasn’t forced to show off new features every year at WWDC. So, some years, under the crunch of iPhone or just general features, they didn’t.

Now, Apple has finally made one of my longer standing dreams into reality. iPadOS. And not just because it’s neat or right or just for the iPad, which has long had its won experience, to have its own, named iOS variant the way most other major products do, but because of the demands that come with it having its own, named variant.

From now on, whether it’s just a little like tvOS or a lot like iOS — which, ironically, was originally called iPhone OS — every year, Apple is going to have to have something to say about the iPad at WWDC.

And here's why that changes everything!

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