iOS 9 must be 90% bug fixes and 10% useful new features.

[Armen]

That's marketing BS and you've been convinced by software companies that this is the correct focus. WRONG.

The company I work for provides a cloud based database solution. We had reached a point where customers were complaining that our software was becoming unstable and had too many bugs.

Management listened to the complaints and shifted focus to address bugs and stability concerns and focus less on look/feel changes and new features for a course of 6-12 months.

During that window of time many customers left us because the software was "too tired, too stale, competitors had features they wanted that we did not".

Marketing didn't convince me of anything. Customer feedback said it all.

 

[iamMacPerson]

multi-task.

No, multi-tasking under iOS 7/8 works well enough and I do not think they should focus resources on something as trivial as that. What iOS needs is a 'Snow Leopard' release so to speak. Where it has no new features, but cleans up everything that needs cleaning up.

Snow Leopard cleaned up so much code its ridiculous. IIRC, from Leopard to Snow Leopard they were able to cut the amount of space needed for install in half because they dropped the legacy PowerPC code. Snow Leopard was an amazing OS. I think this year we will see optimization in the system as a whole while cleaning up the code of the system. Next year will see even further optimization since at that point I think Apple will drop support for 32-bit ARM. They will be able to dump all the (soon to be) legacy code from the OS and really speed things up.

Also, I really like the very detailed answer the above poster gave. Certainly worth bumping a 2mo old thread over

If they are going to add a new feature however, it should be a dark mode like Yosemite. That would look slick.

 

[goobot]

they should go back to the iOS 1 and 2 days. Release a few major features in the main update and then release some other minor features in .x updates. The main thing for iOS 9 could be code clean up and then they could release some new stuff in 9.1/9.2/9.3 and the main team can go back to making new features for iOS 10

 

[some1uDNTknow]

Apple needs to dedicate a good chunk of the iOS team to focus on bug fixes for iOS 9 as you mentioned. However, I would expect Apple to have already allocated some developers to start work on iOS 10 or X. I hope iOS 10 will bring major features / changes and "it just works." I wouldn't mind Watch 2 with it either.

 

[border terrier]

iOS 9 must concentrate 90% on bug fixes and performance improvements giving an overall sense of fine polish and must be just 10% useful practical features like USB storage.

You can't prove the absence of bugs, just that you have fixed the ones that have been identified. 90% bug free is an arbitrary number in any case, it's what the bugs do and how they affect the user that important. BT for example just introduced a bug in a firmware update for my router that causes DNS to fail on a small number of websites. Just so happens the one I work with 90% of the time is affected and I cannot now access the site at all via the router.

 

[oldmacs]

Apple should make iOS 9 run well with 512 MB of ram, and then it will run excellently with an extra 512 MB of ram in the A6, A7 and A8 1 GB devices...

A6, A7 and A8 devices should be able to run iOS 9 perfectly, and there should only be small issues on A5 devices (like iOS 7 on A5 devices).

 

[ZipZap]

The company I work for provides a cloud based database solution. We had reached a point where customers were complaining that our software was becoming unstable and had too many bugs.

Management listened to the complaints and shifted focus to address bugs and stability concerns and focus less on look/feel changes and new features for a course of 6-12 months.

During that window of time many customers left us because the software was "too tired, too stale, competitors had features they wanted that we did not".

Marketing didn't convince me of anything. Customer feedback said it all.

If it's unstable it needs to be fixed. You can't pile on new stuff if the core is not working. The fact that it took 12 months to fix speaks more to the poor quality of developers and an il conceived product. If your competition was better then deserve the business.

 

[Armen]

If it's unstable it needs to be fixed. You can't pile on new stuff if the core is not working. The fact that it took 12 months to fix speaks more to the poor quality of developers and an il conceived product. If your competition was better then deserve the business.

Every software company has to balance stability and features. It's not all that uncommon for a company to release a software and then patch it over several months and add new features also.

I'm not saying Apple needs to what EA or Ubisoft does which is release garbage and then patch for months and months.

All I'm saying is that the Mobile market is more volatile and I do not think Apple can apply the brakes and release a "new" iOS alongside the new 6S model with no new features. That may have worked with Mac OS but I don't think it will work well here.

It's bad enough that the average iPhone user doesn't even know a lot of the new features added. (I'm constantly showing co-workers new features in iOS they did not know existed).

 

[Max(IT)]

Apple should make iOS 9 run well with 512 MB of ram, and then it will run excellently with an extra 512 MB of ram in the A6, A7 and A8 1 GB devices...

A6, A7 and A8 devices should be able to run iOS 9 perfectly, and there should only be small issues on A5 devices (like iOS 7 on A5 devices).

Actually I suspect most of the aggressive memory management schedule iOS is using, it's caused by the legacy support for 512 Mb devices.

----------

Every software company has to balance stability and features. It's not all that uncommon for a company to release a software and then patch it over several months and add new features also.

I'm not saying Apple needs to what EA or Ubisoft does which is release garbage and then patch for months and months.

All I'm saying is that the Mobile market is more volatile and I do not think Apple can apply the brakes and release a "new" iOS alongside the new 6S model with no new features. That may have worked with Mac OS but I don't think it will work well here.

It's bad enough that the average iPhone user doesn't even know a lot of the new features added. (I'm constantly showing co-workers new features in iOS they did not know existed).

I fully agree.
From a marketing point of view, Apple need a couple new functionalities with iOS 9.

 

[Mac-lover3]

They could make iOS 9 the Snow Leopard under the iOS versions with 0 new features but include some new features wit 9.1, 9.2, ... Maybe this isn't such a bad idea huh? And do this over and over again with iOS 10... But they should really plan what they are going to release at the keynote (WWDC) and then push the updates with the other keynotes around the year if they have something to release like in October that's 2-3 months later then WWDC and then the first mayor feature should be included with iOS...
I also think that the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, iPad Mini (1ste gen) and iPod Touch will get this update and I truly believe it will run a lot smoother than iOS 8 if iOS 9 is really bug fixes and speed improvements...

 

[TallManNY]

Actually I suspect most of the aggressive memory management schedule iOS is using, it's caused by the legacy support for 512 Mb devices.

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I fully agree.
From a marketing point of view, Apple need a couple new functionalities with iOS 9.

Couldn't disagree more. Additional features are not needed in iOS 9. The iPhone is going to have a terrific year in 2015. Very little marketing is needed. Sales will be huge in 2016 with the iPhone 6S if they do nothing but improve the chip and memory. Additional features are constantly available anyway in the form of Apps. Make the phone "just work", get additional sales through Apple Watch, add new features to Apple TV with new hardware and instead leave the iPhone unchanged but rock solid. The watch and TV will be enough for the tech geeks to play with anyway. Regular folks don't need to learn a new OS on their mobile device while they are learning to use their watch and their TV. That is enough.

The new feature that is there but so far not used is the improved Siri. If Apple taught folks how to use that, the whole phone would feel like a new device anyway.

 

[Sound214]

While iOS 9 has got to be more bug free than iOS 8 have been, I find iOS 8.3 beta 2 to be really solid on my iPhone 6 Plus.

 

[C DM]

Couldn't disagree more. Additional features are not needed in iOS 9. The iPhone is going to have a terrific year in 2015. Very little marketing is needed. Sales will be huge in 2016 with the iPhone 6S if they do nothing but improve the chip and memory. Additional features are constantly available anyway in the form of Apps. Make the phone "just work", get additional sales through Apple Watch, add new features to Apple TV with new hardware and instead leave the iPhone unchanged but rock solid. The watch and TV will be enough for the tech geeks to play with anyway. Regular folks don't need to learn a new OS on their mobile device while they are learning to use their watch and their TV. That is enough.

The new feature that is there but so far not used is the improved Siri. If Apple taught folks how to use that, the whole phone would feel like a new device anyway.

That's why Apple does all that marketing all the time, especially in relation to various new features and hardware, when they really don't need it...they just like spending money and time on it for no real reason, right?

 

[TallManNY]

That's why Apple does all that marketing all the time, especially in relation to various new features and hardware, when they really don't need it...they just like spending money and time on it for no real reason, right?

Oh they market. But as a percentage of their sales, they don't spend that much money on marketing the iPhone.
The iPhone is a good phone. I'm not sure that new iOS features that get marketed really driving any appreciably amount of sales. Last quarter was a great quarter. But how many sales were driving by new to iOS 8 features like Continuity? Or was it just that the phone works great, has a great screen and camera, has touchID and is thin and light with good battery life? These aren't iOS 8 features. Apple Pay is the only iOS feature that I recognize as new to iOS and which I use fairly regularly. I can't think of another one.

 

[oldmacs]

Actually I suspect most of the aggressive memory management schedule iOS is using, it's caused by the legacy support for 512 Mb devices.

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I fully agree.
From a marketing point of view, Apple need a couple new functionalities with iOS 9.

The aggressive emory management is not the cause of the problem. It is the bloated nature of iOS. I watch the ram usage on my iPhone 5, and it uses HEAPS of ram on iOS 8. With Safari open and nothing else, its only left with 10 percent free ram. Not surprising that 1 GB Ram iPads can't keep many tabs open, as iOS has to be aggressive with dumping tabs to keep enough ram free.

If Apple reduced the bloat it would run better on 512 MB and 1 GB devices. iOS 7 for example was less bloated. Less bloat = more free ram = less page reloading.

I don't think Apple need too many new features. Most people would notice speed and battery improvements more than a heap of new features. That said, i expect there to be some new features in iOS 9, and more features annouced at WDDC, and released in 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3 after they have the core OS running better.

 

[Max(IT)]

Couldn't disagree more. Additional features are not needed in iOS 9. The iPhone is going to have a terrific year in 2015. Very little marketing is needed. Sales will be huge in 2016 with the iPhone 6S if they do nothing but improve the chip and memory. Additional features are constantly available anyway in the form of Apps. Make the phone "just work", get additional sales through Apple Watch, add new features to Apple TV with new hardware and instead leave the iPhone unchanged but rock solid. The watch and TV will be enough for the tech geeks to play with anyway. Regular folks don't need to learn a new OS on their mobile device while they are learning to use their watch and their TV. That is enough.

The new feature that is there but so far not used is the improved Siri. If Apple taught folks how to use that, the whole phone would feel like a new device anyway.

I'm very happy you don't work for Apple marketing division...

 

[TallManNY]

I'm very happy you don't work for Apple marketing division...

Ha ha. Yep, I would not be good at marketing, definitely not my thing.

I went to the Apple iOS 8 page to see what they considered the key new features of iOS 8. And yep, the features are either under the hood or they are something I dont use. Im not saying that they arent nice features. But I doubt something like having iCloud document storage really sold a bunch of iPhones. I cant see myself having to start an email on my phone and then finish it on my computer. Maybe these features work for the program and design folks who work from a Mac outfitted office or from home on their Mac. But for most of us it is Windows at Work and then an Iphone and Mac at home. So these productivity features dont help that much as work is a Windows activitiy.

 

[I7guy]

Ha ha. Yep, I would not be good at marketing, definitely not my thing.

I went to the Apple iOS 8 page to see what they considered the key new features of iOS 8. And yep, the features are either under the hood or they are something I dont use. Im not saying that they arent nice features. But I doubt something like having iCloud document storage really sold a bunch of iPhones. I cant see myself having to start an email on my phone and then finish it on my computer. Maybe these features work for the program and design folks who work from a Mac outfitted office or from home on their Mac. But for most of us it is Windows at Work and then an Iphone and Mac at home. So these productivity features dont help that much as work is a Windows activitiy.

Apple pay may have sold a bunch of new phones.

 

[oldmacs]

Ha ha. Yep, I would not be good at marketing, definitely not my thing.

I went to the Apple iOS 8 page to see what they considered the key new features of iOS 8. And yep, the features are either under the hood or they are something I dont use. Im not saying that they arent nice features. But I doubt something like having iCloud document storage really sold a bunch of iPhones. I cant see myself having to start an email on my phone and then finish it on my computer. Maybe these features work for the program and design folks who work from a Mac outfitted office or from home on their Mac. But for most of us it is Windows at Work and then an Iphone and Mac at home. So these productivity features dont help that much as work is a Windows activitiy.

Most of my friends and family I either updated to iOS 8 or tried to convince to update to iOS 8 couldn't care less for the majority of new iOS 8 features.

Plus developers are still only now taking advantage of new APIS from iOS 8, so they don't need another truckload to take months and months to actually implement.

Most iPhone users I know complain of battery life and speed issues, so a fix there would make A LOT of people happy.

Apple needs to get iOS 8 to a state where it runs reasonably at least on A7 and A8 devices, and preferably also A6 devices. On A5 devices, any sort of improvement (perhaps just back to iOS 7 speeds) would be great. Apple's flagship iPhones shouldn't lag. I've used iPhone 6's in store and also through borrowing friends iPhone 6, and from time to time the UI lags, which should not happen at all. Also The iPad Air 1 is a mess with iOS 8, with lagging and jittering.

It took till iOS 7 for my iPad 2 to jitter and lag at all, and that was mainly fixed with 7.1. iOS devices should not lag and jerk at just one iOS update in.

My point is that new features will never be used by everyone. I don't think Handoff is used terribly much, interactive notifications hasn't been adopted by developers, app extensions have barely been adopted by developers and so forth. However speed enhancements can be appreciated by EVERYONE.

 

[I7guy]

I had an iPhone 6, which I used alongside my 5s, until I gave it to a family ember. iPhone 6 was awesome. Friends and associates with 6+ are loving their phones. Battery life is great and those phones are fast.

My iPad 2 runs 8.1.3 better than iOS 7. I know people have posted issues with other models, but I havent seen issues with my iPad 2. iPad 2 was released on iOS 4, I would not go back.

Apple has to keep pushing for new features, without new features they wouldn't sell any phones.

 

[TallManNY]

Apple pay may have sold a bunch of new phones.

I doubt it has yet sold many phones because it is only available in the U.S. and only in a few places. However, I do agree that it will sell a ton of phones later this year because it is a GREAT feature. It is also very visible to folks who don't have it. It looks cool when you Apple Pay. As more and more stores accept it, folks who don't have Apple Pay will be reminded more and more during their daily life that they don't have it.

Also as it becomes a common part of your routine it will "lock" folks into the Apple ecosystem.

But more little stores need to have it.

Incidentally, I had my Apple Pay turned down at an Apple Store. Apparently there is a price limit which my credit card won't authorize its usage for. I actually used the plastic card and completed my transaction. But since my phone is harder to steel and access than my credit card, I think the transaction became less secure when I used my card; both for me and the credit card company.

 

[goobot]

I doubt it has yet sold many phones because it is only available in the U.S. and only in a few places. However, I do agree that it will sell a ton of phones later this year because it is a GREAT feature. It is also very visible to folks who don't have it. It looks cool when you Apple Pay. As more and more stores accept it, folks who don't have Apple Pay will be reminded more and more during their daily life that they don't have it.

Also as it becomes a common part of your routine it will "lock" folks into the Apple ecosystem.

But more little stores need to have it.

Incidentally, I had my Apple Pay turned down at an Apple Store. Apparently there is a price limit which my credit card won't authorize its usage for. I actually used the plastic card and completed my transaction. But since my phone is harder to steel and access than my credit card, I think the transaction became less secure when I used my card; both for me and the credit card company.

Could be because they didn't want to pay apple there % cut at high purchases and they assume you would buy it no mater what either way.