To that end, some features developed for the mobile version of Blender will cross-pollinate to desktop, like icon support for sidebar tabs and a helper overlay with curated shortcuts, among other things.
You can see some mockups over at the Blender blog. Development has begun in earnest on a new, separate branch for this tablet application. It will be developed first to target the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, with other platforms and tablets to get tailored support later.
It sounds like the team already has some knowledgable designers and developers on this branch, but the blog post is also an invitation for new contributors. Specifically, it calls for “developers with extensive experience in this area” to contribute to building the application, touch events and gestures support, “File System / iCloud / AirDrop support,” and OpenSubdiv.
It sounds like things are already moving relatively quickly, as a tech demo is planned for SIGGRAPH 2025 in Vancouver next month.