Sources indicate to Bloomberg that Apple may ultimately have to push back to a later iOS version some of Ive's desired changes such as a complete remake of the iOS email app in order to have iOS 7 ready on time ...
Jony - if you can't get it all done at once, then do part of it, ship iOS 7, then do the rest of it and ship updates with the rest of the changes. Especially if the changes are just cosmetic. How about doing the OS first, then shipping Apple apps one at a time as they're ready?
...and that Ive is also exploring some future concepts such as gesture controls that do not require touching the device's display.
Uh oh. If the iOS 7 work includes adding pervasive non-touch-gesture features, then that one feature alone could take many months to get right. Say, for example, you could "hover" one or more fingertips over the screen as some new form of gesturing. That would require deep changes to the OS' interface layer and all apps that use the new "hover" gestures.
And, by the way, "hovering" could pave the way for unification of iOS and OS X. The lack of a cursor (among other things) on iOS prevents that now, but that issue goes away if you could hover a fingertip to bring up a cursor, and if the cursor would follow your fingertip as you move it around near the screen.
Or, going even further down the silly rumor path, "hovering" could enable 3-d interaction with a 3-d interface. You'd touch the screen to manipulate icons at the deepest level, then lift your fingers up to manipulate icons visually closer to you.
On the other hand, maybe non-touch gesturing could be used for something completely different. Maybe Siri will be able to understand American Sign Language using the front-facing camera. So non-hearing / non-speaking people can use the dictation feature.
(Note: I think that unifying iOS and OS X is a terrible idea. I used to think it was inevitable. But really, I think there would be little or no benefit to Apple or its customers, and it might end up being terribly confusing. Just look at Windows 8. But I do think ARM-based consumer Macs are inevitable.)