Apple delays iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11 development due to bug issues – Apple

Apple has adopted an annual upgrade cycle for its major software platform, and with that pace have come concerns about bugs and platform stability. According to a new report by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, has temporarily halted development of iOS 18 and macOS 15 to meet quality goals.

The purpose of the shutdown was to give developers time to address a number of bugs that surfaced early in the development process, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple’s main goal is to fix issues that affect app performance to ensure that its users have a consistent experience from day one. Once these important issues are fixed, then work can continue to add new features added to iOS 18, watchOS 11 and macOS 15.

According to Gurman, the one-week “pause” began last week after senior management identified an alarming number of “leaks,” that is, bugs that were not found during internal testing. A week’s hiatus may not seem like a long time, but it’s a significant event for a company of Apple’s size and reach. “It’s a problem of 10,000 people typing code and causing issues in the operating system,” said one of Gurman’s unnamed sources.

Apple has reportedly completed work on the M1 version of iOS 18/iPadOS 18 (codenamed Crystal) and macOS 15 (Glow). The M1 refers to Apple’s first software platform development milestone. Discontinued development refers to the M2 versions of the above operating systems.

Within 2 months, Apple has released several updates for iOS 17 to fix bugs that customers were facing. The version, iOS 17.1, solved issues with screen burn-in on the iPhone 15 and keyboard responsiveness, among others, while version 17.1.1 released today fixes the problem with wireless chargers in BMW cars and the iPhone 15 .Owners of the new iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro also encountered a strange bug that put the phones in an update loop when trying to transfer data from an old iPhone.