Apple Needs to Do More With the iPhone Pro Max

Commentary: Apple needs to bring some iPad features to the iPhone Pro Max's big screen.

Apple's iPhone 13 Pro Max and 12 Pro Max have sizable 6.7-inch screens, making them the biggest smartphones in the company's repertoire. Although both are also considerably larger than the standard 6.1-inch iPhone 13, 5.4-inch iPhone 13 Mini and 4.7-inch iPhone SE, they still run the same software as Apple's smaller phones. If only there were more ways to make use of the Pro Max's giant screen.

Luckily, there are. Apple should draw inspiration from the iPhone's larger cousin, the iPad. Apple's tablets are loaded with extra features that make apps easier to use on a larger screen. The company even renamed the iPad's operating system iPadOS in 2019 to distinguish it from the iPhone's iOS. The iPad's interface had evolved so much by that point, it no longer made sense to lump both sets of software together.

I'm not suggesting something as drastic as a rebranding to "Pro Max OS." But I do think both Apple and its customers could benefit from iOS 16, the next major iPhone software version, having new features that are specific to the larger iPhone.

Doing so wouldn't be simple. Modifications would need to be made to bring iPad-specific features like multitasking to the iPhone Pro Max. But Apple already has a history of tailoring apps and software to specific products, as it proved with the original iPad and Apple Watch. So I'd trust it to do the same in this case.

Here are the iPad features I think would translate well to the iPhone Pro Max.