Apple has confirmed that it is to break with convention and stagger the release of its iPhone and iPad operating systems.

It will make iOS 16 available soon after the launch of the iPhone 14 in September, but iPadOS 16 will be delayed until later this autumn.

In fact, the first public release of the latest iPadOS will actually be iPadOS 16.1.

"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," the Cupertino company commented to TechCrunch.

"This fall, iPadOS will ship after iOS, as version 16.1 in a free software update."

Long gone are the days when iPads ran the same flavour of iOS as iPhones. Apple unveiled iPadOS 16 alongside its iOS equivalent during WWDC in June, but it sports a number of key differences - especially for owners of iPad Pro devices.

It will introduce a feature that's also coming to MacBook, for example - Stage Manager. This enables multiple apps to be viewed simultaneously on the screen as overlapping windows.

There will be an enhanced version of the Weather app too, which shows more information on the larger screen real estate. And new display options are heading our way to also make better use of it.

We should find out more during the next Apple event, currently thought to be slated for 7 September 2022 but, as yet, unconfirmed.