“The iPhone 6 has set sales records since its first week of release and led to Apple’s most profitable quarter ever. There have been some bumps in the road, but the market — and Apple’s customers — continue to have that loving feeling,” Anthony Wing Kosner writes for Forbes. “What could possibly go wrong?”
“In a word, software,” Kosner writes. “A growing chorus of developers and Apple-watchers is raising the alarm that the buggy releases of iOS 8 and Yosemite are part of a systemic decline in the quality of Apple’s software. The now-yearly release schedule for both iOS and OS X combined with the increasing complexity of the overall Apple ecosystem have put a strain on its engineers, these voices say.”
“To quickly recap, iOS 8 has had problems with Photos, ringtones, data usage, Family Sharing, iCloud syncing, cellular network connectivity, WiFi performance, Messages, Accessibility and security. Yosemite meanwhile has had persistent WiFi issues along with iCloud and UI glitches and performance problems on not-so-old Macs,” Kosner writes. “One of Apple’s biggest fans, John Gruber of Daring Fireball, wrote back in October: ‘From the outside, it seems like Apple’s software teams can’t keep up with the pace of the hardware teams. Major new versions of iOS aren’t released ‘when they’re ready,’ they’re released when the new iPhone hardware ships. On Twitter the other day, I suggested that perhaps Apple should decouple major iOS feature releases from the iPhone hardware schedule. That’s probably untenable from a marketing perspective, and it might just make things more complex from a QA perspective. But something has to give.'”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple needs to do better. Our expectations, some of us as users of Apple products since the early 1980s, are not being met when it comes to operating system quality. Used to be, you could pretty confidently install brand new operating systems from Apple. Recently, we’re more inclined to wait for a few point releases than not. It’s downright Microsoftian. Lately, your software seems rushed, Apple. Is “rush job” really the impression you want to give your customers?
Slow down, Apple! Getting it right is far more important than getting it out.
Frankly, Tim, we don’t need a new Mac or iPhone/iPad operating system every year and Apple Inc. doesn’t need it, either. What we really need are operating systems that are rock solid and do what they’re supposed to do when they’re supposed to do it. That would be good for Apple, too – in more ways than one. Simply add new features to existing OSes with continued point releases that refine and extend the experiences and services you want to deliver.
And… pause to toggle OS X Yosemite’s Wi-Fi off and on for the third time this morning… fix the fscking OS X Wi-Fi, will you already? It’s embarrassing.
Seriously. Go back to when it friggin’ worked right (prior to OS X Mavericks) and figure out WTF you changed/added that screwed it up and FIX IT. Sheesh.
…and fcpx has bugs now,,,with OS X Yosemite
Zero WiFi issues on my late 2012 mini, or the four iMacs I manage at the local community centre. And for me Yosemite is the best OS X release ever.
YMMV.
=:~)
Same here, although I only manage 5 Macs. As luck would have it, I’ve not seen any of the problems. And I’ve been running 10.10.2 on three of those Macs.
agreed.
If Apple is to continue to succeed, they really need to get a better product our the door. It’s just impossible for me to believe that with all the beta testing that is done(… should be done….) that these major problems are not ID’d and fixed before release.
Apple needs to “stick to the knitting.”
Adding to MDN Take which I agree strongly with for once… for iPhone at least, if you can’t completely decouple the software/hardware cycles from each other then do the major iOS update every 2 years along with the major hardware refresh.
We don’t need a new freaking O/S every year specially when it forces the crappiness of the iOS 7/8 UI’s upon us.
10.10 is unfortunately still significantly less stable than Mavericks. Shame on you Tim.
Apple Apps crashing on my MBP early 2014, not only Mail, also Reminders and Notes.
I am seriously thinking about going back to 10.9, even if I would miss iCloud drive a little. But not too much, because there is not such iOS App to explore my content with the iPad.
Let us know why Microsoft and Dropbox can do better on Apple Devices, please let us know why Apple still does not provide Preview App on iOS 8, come on.
Integration means almost seamless use of it all. And don’t emphasize the wrong word here.
Fix your shit.
WIthout Steve Jobs demanding perfection, Apple will just be another tech company.
The decline is already taking place. How do I know this? Look at IOS 8 and Yosemite.
These tech journalists gripe that Apple’s software is buggy, but if it’s too long until something is released, they’ll act like Apple’s just doing nothing.
Fact is, with every release, the software does more, and gets more complicated. If any of you can create bug free software, where are you?
That said, I do agree that the yearly release thing could slow down a bit.
I have had no problems with either Yosemite or IOS 8. I never get the original release and wait for the .1 release. I also don’t ever get the first version of new hardware so I won’t be getting an Apple Watch anytime soon.
BUT I do not like the Pages interface changes. Seems like changes mad just to make changes.
I also do not care to get a thinner IPhone. I have an IPhone 6. Better battery life is far more appealing than an even thinner design.
I’ve given up all hope that Cook or his perma-smirked software boy can write a reliable IMAP email app. One that doesn’t have to be toggled off/on to get attachment 5 times a day.
MDN’s take sounds more like an echo chamber. As if only a few months ago (pre-iPhone 6, iOS8 & iWatch) you were not berating Tim Cook for lack of innovation, along with the busy bodies of the tech journalism world, now that innovation is not an issue (never was, really, except for the media impatience), you are starting to sing another tune; the new tune is “Slow down”. Why don’t you (MDN) slow down instead and look back and see how you can be consistent in your messaging.
The same thing happened when the whole, totally manufactured, kerfuffle was going on about “skeuomorphism”. Everybody and their brother was suddenly an expert designer, and had to say something about it. Despite some really thoughtful blogs by design experts who advised caution at the time, MDN along with others served their usually echo chamber role and whipped up the frenzied criticism of the time. It must have affected Apple designers, as it turned out we ended it with the so called flat design of iOS 7 & 8, and the removal of most of the beautiful & thoughtfully designed iconography of earlier years.
Again, I suggest you take the same medicine you are prescribing to Apple, and slow down and think before you foist another unhelpful suggestion again.
Apple needs to employ many many new employees, many of those with “experience background” laid off by companies running Windows PC when not Windows PC developers and manufacturers. They introduced bugs, glitches, bad UI elements and functionalities as viruses and bacteria do in human body. The medicines (Apple spirit training) were insufficient if not completely absent, leading to what old Mac Users are not accustomed but all those new to Apple customers are and find it normal. No, it is not not normal. Normal is, as Steve Jobs would have appreciated : ” It just works in the intuitive way.
The software quality control has hit a sort of low. I’ve been using Macs for 30 years and there have been a few hiccups. (Anybody remember the TCP/IP problems from the late 90s? Yikes.)
Mavericks and iOS 8 are the current hiccups, IMO. In particular, the interface guidelines seem to have gone out the window. iTunes 12 is the worst iTunes I’ve used and I’m a fan of iTunes.
Stuff is going out with too many bugs.
Frankly, Tim, we don’t need a new Mac or iPhone/iPad operating system every year
WOW ! E.S.P..
More time to fix bugs. AND don’t “fix” what doen’t NEED fixing.
Give me back my 3D-glass look. Don’t have inside info but, maybe time to hire back Scott Forstall.
Last night connected the dated MacBook Air via WiFi to iPad HotSpot to Internet via 4G.
Something called mTraffic from App Store on the MBA was telling me the WiFi connection from the iPad to the MBA was virtually constant at about Rx 536 MB/s and Tx 30 MB/s.
However, the speed to the internet from varied from woeful at 10 KB/s to 1.5 MB/s and above, which astounded me. Seemed to depend on the web site, with Apple sites being the best performers.
So methinks the problem may not be so much with the performance of the WiFi per se, but with variable/questionable iinternet connections.
My misinterpretation of numbers: The 536 MB/s and 30 MB/s should read 536 MB download total and 30 MB upload total; had total MB option selected instead of speed option selected in mTraffic. Needless to say, correlation between download speed and URL was consistent.
Using Apple products for over 30 years. The current state of Apple products (hardware and software), is probably the worst it’s been in all my experience. Wifi issues, FaceTime issues, crashes, etc continue to plague iOS for the pat 2 years. This, iPhone 6+, will be the last Apple product I ever purchase.
The problem with this story and MDN’s take is that this isn’t a new development.
This is basically status quo. I have been a user since the 128K and a developer for the past 15 years. This is nothing new. The only change I can see is that the developer community is now much larger than it was even 7 years ago.
If I want to send something via AirPlay from my iPhone to my iPad i have to try at least two times. Toggle it off and on before it happens. When it does, it’s amazing. But it should work the first time.
In Apples own words, “It should just work”.
I have varying day to day minor issues with both iOS and OSX that come and go.
Mini, iPhone 5, and iPad mini. Consistent pattern on the wifi issue, some crashes.
Apple user since Apple II, no question in my mind that the marketing geeks have gotten too much influence, too many things happening too fast at the cost of quality experience.
Marketing wants to get features features features features features features features features features out there whether they are ready or not. (the repeating of features in this post is not a bug, just me trying to make a point)
You can’t possibly test everything ahead of time, some things don’t show up until they get in the field, everybody should understand that.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you just blindly keep throwing new features out there just to make the kiddies happy. You have to slow the pace of new feature adoption so that the users are not overwhelmed with stuff that does not work as expected. Just explaining it is not enough. We will tolerate some bugs, NOT A LOT, and that is what we have now.
I am a content creator, and so OSX is my highest priority, more important for that to be right than iOS. As far as OSX, Snow Leopard was the best, the direction since is tolerable, I would have stayed there had most of my 3rd party content creation apps have required it due to their “upgrades” Apple apps for content creation aren’t even in the picture for my daily work.
iOS has the most day to day issues for me, things come and go, and with every update of iOS, some bugs are fixed but new bugs show up. WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU? I won’t even bother to answer my own question on that one. But without OSX content creators, there is nothing to put on iOS. But please fix iOS.
After using iPhone and iPad for a couple of years in my day to day job, my plan at upgrade time is to back down to least expensive iPhone, not replace my iPad, but to upgrade to Macbook Air using iPhone personal hotspot when it is needed, and move totally away from the iPad. Touch interface is not good enough for any content creation of any kind, and iWork package for iOS is worthless, just takes up space.
Overall, the product quality for the user is what will determine Apples overall future. Both OSX and iOS need work, OSX being more important because all apps start there. Marketing geeks and their rollout schedules have too much influence.
Worked for two major auto manufacturers, and I have seen this pattern before. Hoping for the best.
Tim Cook wants Apple to be a luxury brand maybe similar to Mercedes Benz. However, as a user of both products I would far rather have Apple copy Toyota. Very nice and they just work and work and work. Something that unfortunately be said for MB.