Why Apple Took So Long To Bring A Weather App To iPad
iPadOS 16 is slated to bring a slew of productivity and multitasking features to the iPad when it releases to the public in the fall, but it'll also debut with a simple function that has been withheld from the tablet for years: a weather app. Though the weather app has been included on the iPhone and receives improvements through iOS updates, it hasn't made its way to the iPad. Even before Apple split the software versions between the iPhone and iPad, the latter was left without essential functions, like a weather app and calculator. As the company focused on other additions to the best-selling tablet, it was clear that adding a weather app was not a priority. So, what changed? Like some of Apple's other software endeavors, it starts with an acquisition.
With some software additions, Apple searches outside the company for solutions, especially if it feels like a third-party solution already solves a problem adequately. This can be seen in the company's portfolio of services today, namely with regard to music. Apple Music, one of Apple's more prominent subscription services, started in part with the acquisition of Beats by Dre. Beats One, a music subscription service hosted by Beats by Dre, essentially became Apple Music. For new music discovery, the company also acquired Shazam, a service that listens to music in a user's environment to identify the track's name. In the years after these acquisitions, the feature set that once remained independent is slowly incorporated into the main operating system.
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The years-long journey of a weather app for iPad started in March 2020, when Apple acquired Dark Sky, a third-party weather app popular on both iOS
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