iPadOS 26 is on the way – Apple revealed its next iPad software update at WWDC 2025, and since then the internet has been ablaze with reactions and speculation.
The big ticket items for this year’s iPadOS update pertain to multitasking – all currently-sold iPads (and likely several older models) are due to get support for up to six desktop-style windows at once, as well as a menu bar, and updates to the dock and background processing.
We already recommend the base model iPad and iPad Pro as some of the best tablets you can buy, but this upcoming update has got me thinking about where Apple now sits in the wider tablet market.
It’s no secret that Apple’s tablet hardware is the best on the market – there are simply no other tablets with the raw processing power the iPad Pro and iPad Air’s M-series chipsets can offer.
Speaking frankly, the only thing giving other tablet makers a chance has been software – iPadOS has long been held back by a lack of flexibility and unintuitive design, while rivals like Samsung have pushed ahead with innovative features like DeX, which offers a desktop-style experience that works especially well with a keyboard and mouse.
But with iPadOS 26 bringing huge updates, that could all change.
Samsung’s options
I recently spent some time testing the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus for an upcoming review, and found it to be a big, premium-feeling tablet that offers a lot of software flexibility at the cost of performance.
In fact, having used the Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus in a variety of situations, I think the only reason someone should buy one is if they absolutely need its combination of a large 13-inch screen, flexible multitasking, and intermediate price (starting at $649 / £649 / AU$1,099).
iPadOS 26’s windowed multitasking, from what we’ve seen so far, is not as developed or as open-ended as Samsung DeX, but in true Apple style it’ll probably be just useful enough to overshadow Samsung’s offering when combined with the iPad’s hardware power.
That takes away a major advantage to buying a Samsung tablet pretty much instantly.
If you ask me, Samsung should be really quite worried about this, and has one of two options to survive an upcoming iPad renaissance.
The first is simply cutting prices as much as costs allow. Samsung tablets are definitively premium devices, with great build quality and sometimes bigger screens than comparably priced iPads – but they’re still very expensive, and don’t perform as well as Apple’s tablets.
Like it or not, iPadOS is the standard for how a tablet works, so asking users to shell out almost as much as an iPad costs for a device that isn’t as powerful, runs potentially unfamiliar software, and offers just slightly more utility looks like a pretty mediocre deal.
The second option is stepping up performance without an increase in price – our Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus review and Samsung Galaxy S10 Ultra review found the tablets to be solid performers, but not to Apple’s standards. That’s backed up by our own Future Labs testing data: neither Samsung tablet catches up to the latest iPad Air in single or multicore benchmarks.
A renewed rivalry
Both of these options ask a lot of Samsung, perhaps more than can be delivered in a few release cycles.
But with Apple’s smooth user experience, wider selection of professional apps, more powerful hardware, and upcoming multitasking improvements, I seriously can’t see the point in buying a Samsung tablet right now.
That’s not me giving Apple an easy ride either, let me be clear that as someone who personally bought an iPad Pro in 2020, the long wait for proper multitasking on iPad has been very, very frustrating. But having used both iPads and Samsung tablets, I’d still pick the iPad any day thanks to its better app availability and smoother user experience.
And my own experiences aside, there’s no denying that iPads are vastly more popular than Samsung tablets. A Forbes report from September 2024 estimates that Apple holds 35.8% of the tablet market worldwide, compared to Samsung’s 20.1%. That’s going to make the impact of iPadOS 26 feel even more significant, even if the features added are ones Samsung users have enjoyed for years.
That’s not to say there are no benefits to buying a Samsung tablet: One UI 7 is rich with customizable settings, and the aforementioned Dex mode really is fantastic. It’s just that iPadOS 26 is poised to take Apple’s tablet platform to a new level of competition.
I’d like to see a future in which the best iPads and the best Samsung tablets keep clashing head-to-head; here’s hoping Samsung can make the right moves to keep up. Look out for my full Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE Plus review soon.
As ever, the comments section is open for discussion – is Apple destined to take over? Or does Samsung have more of a chance than I think? Let us know below.
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jamie.richards@futurenet.com (Jamie Richards)
