In a rare move, Apple Inc. paused development of next year's software updates for iPhone, iPad, Mac and other devices intended to eliminate flaws in the code.
The delay, announced internally to employees last week, is intended to help maintain quality control after a proliferation of bugs in early versions, according to people with knowledge of the decision. Instead of adding new features, the company's engineers were tasked with fixing bugs and improving the software's performance, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
A spokeswoman for the Cupertino, California-based company declined to comment.
Apple's software, famous for its clean interfaces, easy-to-use controls, and focus on privacy, is one of its biggest selling points. That makes quality control imperative. But the company has to balance the desire to add new features with making sure its operating systems work as well as possible.
In recent years, Apple has put more emphasis on quality, even when that means delaying new features. In 2018, software engineering chief Craig Federighi delayed several unreleased iPhone features until the following year amid concerns that the software was too buggy.
In 2019, it overhauled the way Apple develops software in a new attempt to avoid problems. Under this approach, each feature must be enabled manually, through a process called “feature flags,” allowing employee testers to isolate the impact on the overall system before adding it.
That year, it also adopted what is known within Apple as “The Pact.” The agreement requires that employees never deliberately allow “regressions” (when software that once worked stopped working correctly) and quickly correct errors. So far, Federighi's policies have paid off: Apple's software releases have had fewer bugs in recent years and fewer features have had to be delayed.
However, the latest round of development hasn't gone so well. When analyzing new operating systems that will be released next year, the software engineering management team found too many “loopholes,” an industry term for bugs that are overlooked during internal testing. So the division took the unusual step of stopping all new feature development for a week to work on fixing the bugs.
With thousands of Apple employees working on a range of operating systems and devices, which must work together seamlessly, it's easy for glitches to arise. “It's a problem of 10,000 people writing code and completely breaking the operating system,” said one person familiar with the situation.
Last month, the company completed the first version of its upcoming iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems. That move is known as M1 as it is the first major milestone. The software for iPhone and iPad, which will become iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, is internally called “Crystal.” The Mac software, macOS 15, is called “Glow.”
Apple delayed the start of work on the second major release, known as M2. The suspension also applied to the upcoming Apple Watch operating system, watchOS 11, called “Moonstone,” as well as an update to the current iOS 17 called iOS 17.4. That software, used by the iPhone and iPad, is expected to launch around next March.
The move also affected future versions of visionOS, the software for Apple's Vision Pro headphones, due out early next year. At this point, however, development delays are unlikely to postpone actual consumer releases. Apple lifts the pause this week.
Apple typically releases its major software revisions every September, after previously introducing them to developers and consumers at its June conference. For next year, the company is planning to focus on integrating generative AI into its products.
Original Note:Apple Delays Work on iPhone, Mac Software Overhauls to Fix Bugs
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