It’s been rumored that Apple was going to delay the release of iPadOS 16. Today, that was confirmed to Brian Heater at TechCrunch:
Apple this morning is rolling out iPadOS 16.1 beta to enrolled developer devices. It’s a break from the standard release cadence, which has tied together the tablet operating system with its smartphone counterpart, iOS, since its first release in 2019.
In a comment to TechCrunch, the company notes, “This is an especially big year for iPadOS. As its own platform with features specifically designed for iPad, we have the flexibility to deliver iPadOS on its own schedule. This Fall, iPadOS will ship after iOS, as version 16.1 in a free software update.”
In other words, Apple will be skipping the iPadOS 16.0 release in the fall and going straight to 16.1.