Apple Has Delayed Some Planned iOS 12 Features Until Next Year to Focus on Performance and Quality

[maflynn]

Problem for Apple is that far too many users expect a new iOS on a yearly basis and expect "features" no matter how silly (animjois) or gimmicky they are.

No question, but is it any different then what Google is doing with android. By going with an annual release schedule, it sets people's expectation to see new features every 12 months

 

[Zorn]

Apple Insider headline says Apple is delaying refresh of the home screen. Does that mean iOS 12 was supposed to have changes to Springboard. Goodness that would’ve received as much excitement as drag and drop on the iPad. Springboard badly needs a redesign.

Agree so much. iOS is already rock solid stable across all of my devices, but the tired home screen so badly needs refreshing. Clickbaity news outlets post all of this junk about how some iPhone for 5 years ago got marginally slower and it just takes over popular opinion.

 

[2ilent8cho]

What they need to do is stop this yearly major iOS update for the sake of it (Same with MacOS), and allow users to go back to the previous major iOS if they wish and also a switch to turn off the update iOS nag. We know full well by the Summer iOS 11 will likely be great, and along iOS 12 will come and again drag us to buggy land.

 

[zed1291]

Whether you like so-called skeuomorphic or so-called flat design is subjective. None of the issues I have with my iOS devices have anything to do with the look of the UI.
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What changed design wise between iOS 10 and 11?

Alot changed. Headers of default apps are now filled with obnoxious white space and often have the apps' names large and bolded. There's awkward spacing of lists across many of the first party apps as well.

The number one reason I use Apple products are the aesthetics. That's why I'm still running iOS 10 on my iPhone and iPad.

 

[Moorepheus]

Better idea is when announcing features at WWDC, make it clear that they will not all come at once in September. 3 of the big additions: Apple Pay Cash, AirPlay 2 and iMessage in the Cloud didn't make it into the 11.0 release and given 2 of these won't make it out of beta until 6 months after the iOS 11 launch looks pretty shabby. They've done it before when the pre-announced the Photos app 6 months before it debuted.

The focus should be on getting a stable release with a few new features out in September and then fix a last few bugs and add features with each subsequent point release.

The problem they would have, is their WWDC would only last 15 minutes. What would they don't with the other 1hr 45minutes they rented out the place for? I have always asked my self the same question. Why do this, make people wait. If it's ready, announce it. If it's not, don't bother...Oh, a way to drive up sales? hhmm...

 

[tkukoc]

If IOS12 turns out to be same old same old, then I'm going to start weeding myself out of the IOS/Apple system. Bandaids were enough to slowly creep into IOS11.. time to reinvent the way people use their Apple devices, a new OS is very much needed. Even X has new gestures that could easily be incorporated into a brand new system interface. Stale is the nicest thing I can say about the system these days.

 

[MarkB786]

The signs of Apple chaos are building. To Apple: Innovate or go the way of Sculley. To Tim Cook: Stay home and mind the shop. Find someone to help you with your lack of product vision.

Apple is losing direction fast as others take the lead.

 

[tkukoc]

No question, but is it any different then what Google is doing with android. By going with an annual release schedule, it sets people's expectation to see new features every 12 months

Apple shouldn't worry about what others are doing. They use to stand on their own, now they are just flatout lazy.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I read this as "Working to optimize software on throttled CPUs, so avoid having to replace 100000000 phone batteries". Especially if the rumors that the "replacement" batteries are new-old-stock that have a useful life of less than a year.

 

[MarkB786]

The signs of Apple chaos are building. To Apple: Innovate or go the way of Sculley. To Tim Cook: Stay home and mind the shop. Find someone to help you with your lack of product vision.

Apple is losing direction fast as others take the lead. I, and may others, are jumping ship to better products at lower prices.

 

[Ds6778]

They're a trillion dollars company. We should be able to get BUG FREE FEATURE PACKED SOFTWARE. The idea that they can only focus on one thing at a time is hilarious. Maybe pull the engineers off animojis.

 

[HugoCatarino]

I will only trust ios updates again when I see all these iPhone 4s, 5, 5s, 5c, 6, etc coming back to life again (as they were in the first place with the old ios versions) in the same way apple once did with the Mac OS (remember when snow leopard came back after the leopard mess.. that yes restored the trust...)

No, I'm not asking fancy-nancy functionalities of the new iOS versions in older phones.. I'm just asking the old ones to stay fast and reliable as they were in the moment people bought them.

Planned obsolescence is not acceptable. Apple has a role at that level and people's trust is absolutely compromised by years of iOS updates turning excellent hardware devices into bricks.
And yes, people actually notice that sneaky very little frame rate reductions and animation slow-downs in the old devices.

Why not to have minimal UI service level to ensure that old devices keep them in the same speed as they were in the first place at least for the core functionalities?
Some people don't care about the performance of the very latest apps, having the last fancy-nancy visual effects or about the very latest nancy things.. They want the core functionalities to stay fast...fast calls, fast messages, fast web navigation. thats it.
why no ensure the developers have a "minimum UI" service level to enable old phones to still leverage current common apps with reduced effects or intensive tasks?

Apple has a great opportunity to increase trust here but simply doesn't care...

 

[xpxp2002]

Got to give them credit....they are churning out updates at a pretty high clip these days to try and squash as many of these big bugs as possible.

That’s what I was thinking. At this point, it’s not necessary to delay new features in iOS 12. 11.2.5 has cleared up the majority of the major issues that were introduced in 11.0 and I’ve heard positive reports from those running 11.3 beta, as well.

 

[Statusnone88]

Refresh to CarPlay AND the home screen delayed? Hello Note 9. See you in 2019, Apple.

In before “good riddance” or whatever other ridiculous **** people say when others are displeased with some choices Apple makes.

 

[GaryMumford]

Soon, Apple’s entire product line on their website will just read “Coming later this year”.

Dont you mean "Coming later..."

 

[MarkB786]

Apple shouldn't worry about what others are doing. They use to stand on their own, now they are just flatout lazy.

??? Of course they should watch and worry about what others are doing (and saying). They have lost the ability to innovate on their own. Who is going to do that? Craig, Eddie, Phil or even Tim? No way. They need their next rising star, but the company is so huge how will they find that person?

 

[tkukoc]

??? Of course they should watch and worry about what others are doing (and saying). They have lost the ability to innovate on their own. Who is going to do that? Craig, Eddie, Phil or even Tim? No way.

They haven't, it's called being lazy and content with being top dog. Now others are catching up and in some ways bypassed them. However, the world stops everytime Apple announces anything. So there's zero reason to pay attention to anyone else, this is exactly how they got in this mess in the first place. Need to get back to basics.

 

[MarkB786]

I get your point. But my point is that I don't think there is anyone left at Apple to allow them to innovate at a basic, fundamental level. There is no one there to drive amazing products and amazing quality.

 

[kshitijshah]

I cant believe the fuss and effort behind the emojis ans animojis. honestly from iOS 10 onwards there havent been any earth shattering announcements. "Files" held so much potential but its implemented poorly.
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I get your point. But my point is that I don't think there is anyone left at Apple to allow them to innovate at a basic, fundamental level. There is no one there to drive amazing products and amazing quality.

In the words of Steve "Customers don't know what they want" - Take a look at Google to see whats possible - Google Lens / PhotoScan / Assistant / predictive assistance etc.

 

[GaryMumford]

This has to be good news... Maybe there going to actually finish iOS11 first!!!
Whats the point of announcing features at WWDC that will not actually see the light of day for months and months... (I'm looking at you "Messages in iCloud". Nearly 8 months since announced and 4 months since iOS11 release, and still only on public beta)

 

[radiology]

Bring Forstall back. Problem solved.

Do you think Cook would be able to make Forstall and Ive agree to work together again? I don;t think so. Only Jobs strong arms could do that.

 

[johnnygee]

I’d be happy if Airdrop worked consistently between my iMac and iPhone. One detects one, but not the other. “Search for an older Mac” (on a 2015 model — not exactly old) sometimes works.

Mine works fine in either direction between my 2015 MBP and iPhone 8 Plus.

 

[ghostface147]

Cool deal. Make it their Snow Leopard of iOS.

 

[TrueBlou]

So, Apple have delayed features they haven’t announced and we didn’t know about in order to focus on improving iOS stability and refining other unannounced features we don’t know about? Is this really news?

 

[CentralOffice]

Bring Forstall back. Problem solved.

Needs more skeumorphism