You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? That would be the AOSP email app which only gets updates when Android OS gets updates...
My point is that I didn't get the most important new iPad OS features on my new-ish iPad. Apple simply didn't implement those features in a way that makes them work on relatively recent devices.
>You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right?
Yes, but the differences are not relevant to the debate. I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.
> My point is that I didn't get the most important new iPad OS features on my new-ish iPad. Apple simply didn't implement those features in a way that makes them work on relatively recent devices
Like I said already:
- there was no magical way to make this feature work on your "newish iPad".
- You can even test it yourself: open Safari, open a few productivity apps, and watch the cold starts come flying.
- Stage Manager is not the most important feature, being on the newest development target is since if you're not most updated apps will not support your device in 12 months
> I'm talking about OS features only, and I'm disregarding regular apps that just happen to get distributed along with the OS for business reasons.
So you're arbitrarily deciding which OS features count, cool... you're free to do that... but that's the definition of a strawman.
Apple's approach to an OS places more value on built in apps, so you see a ton of app based features, that use OS level APIs that don't exist until a new OS upgrade.
You're trying to say Apple could just ship them as app updates, but no, they can't. The APIs they're built on don't exist until a new OS version comes out.
>there was no magical way to make this feature work on your "newish iPad"
I don't know how difficult it would have been to support a broader range of devices. There are always trade-offs involved, engineering trade-offs as well as economic ones. Neither of us is familiar with the technical details or with the options they discussed.
Fact is, this major new feature (and others) is not supported on very recent hardware they sold to me. That's disappointing irrespective of the reasons. And it raises the question how meaningful those X years of OS updates really are.
>So you're arbitrarily deciding which OS features count
I'm counting all OS features but not apps that are only linked to OS releases as a sales strategy. Of course they want to show off new OS APIs in their apps when the OS gets an update. That doesn't require syncronising release cycles the way they do. Many if not most new app features do not depend on new OS APIs at all.
You realize the Gmail app is not the equivalent of the iOS Mail app right? That would be the AOSP email app which only gets updates when Android OS gets updates...