iPadOS 18: More Bad News for Older iPads

According to a reliable source, older iPads may not get iPadOS 18‘s full suite of AI features.

In early April, a private social media account that’s shared accurate information about unreleased software provided troubling information about Apple’s upcoming iPadOS 18 operating system.

The source says all iOS-17 powered iPhones will make the move to iOS 18, but that won’t be the case for iPadOS 18. The iPad (6th generation), iPad Pro (12.9-inch) (2nd generation), and iPad Pro (10.5-inch) will reportedly stay behind on iPadOS 17.

Last week, we got some more bad news for older iPad models. Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who has spent the past few weeks outlining Apple’s plans for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and AI, went into more detail about Apple’s plans.

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, which will both debut at WWDC 2024 on June 10th, are expected to deliver numerous AI features including upgrades to Siri, the personal assistant on both iPhone and iPad.

The operating systems are expected to use a combination of on-device and cloud for AI processing. Unfortunately, it looks like customers might need a newer models to use some of these features.

In the report, Gurman says the cutoff for iPads will be Apple’s M1 chip. The original M1 processor debuted back in the fall of 2020.

If true, it means the iPad Pros from 2021 and the iPad Air 5 from 2022, both of which utilize the M1, should get most of iPadOS 18’s on-device AI features.

Newer iPad models that utilize Apple’s M2 chip and M4 chip will also get a robust version of iPadOS 18.

The good news is that this is more generous than Apple’s plans for iOS 18 where the cutoff will likely be the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and newer.

The bad news is that older iPad models that utilize older chips will likely miss out on AI features and get a lesser version of the operating system.

It’s unclear how big of a blow this is. Apple hasn’t detailed iPadOS 18 in full yet and Gurman didn’t explicitly say which AI features will be missing.

We also don’t know if newer models like the M4-powered iPad Pros will have any exclusive AI features.

The answer to these question will come soon as Apple will push not only confirm iPadOS 18 next week, it will also put iPadOS 18 into beta testing shortly after its WWDC 24 keynote on June 10th.