“Over the last almost-decade, Apple’s established a pretty consistent pattern when it comes to its mobile OS,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld. “Every year, the company launches a new major version of iOS, usually alongside a flagship smartphone release. After the new software hits, the subsequent months see a flurry of intermittent, smaller updates, usually fixing bugs, patching security, and perhaps even tweaking a minor feature or two.”
“It’s pretty rare for Apple to use these point releases to add more substantial new features, but that’s just what happened this past week, when the company not only put out a beta version of iOS 9.3 for developers, but also posted a page of the not-insignificant features included in it,” Moren writes. “As my savvy colleague Jason Snell pointed out, it was a good way to upend the traditional pattern wherein a beta is released to developers, and media outlets trip over themselves to be the first to find all the features squirreled away within it.”
Moren writes, “But it also potentially speaks to a shift in the way that Apple’s treating updating iOS, and that could be a very good thing indeed.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever it takes to ratchet up the level of quality.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iOS 9.3 has a great secret feature – January 14, 2016
Apple releases OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 public beta with Live Photos in Messages, secure Notes, and more – January 14, 2016
‘Shared iPad’ in Apple’s iOS 9.3 is a very big deal – January 14, 2016
If improving software quality means having major OS releases back on a 2-year cycle, then I’m all for it. Like the old Ford slogan, quality should be job one.
Trouble with iOS Apple sat on its capabilities for a couple years as sales rocketed. All that potential improvement just sat on the shelf simply because they didn’t need to develop it into areas where it might compete with the Mac. Understandable from a business point of view but not from a vision point of view, so now they are playing catch up to a degree. Better late than never I guess. Cant afford to slack again in my opinion and that old puck expression must never be forgotten.
I hope 9.3 would reduce the redundancy of swiping left for search and pull down home for search.
Swiping is a pain in the ass. There is room on the screen for a search button. Put it right next to the battery indicator.
Apple, CAN WE PLEASE CHOOSE OUR OWN COLORS AND FONTS NOW ?????
Letting users choose what they want is not always a good practice. Users might not have all the time to customize, it is also a pain to learn all the customizing jargon.
UX designers should know what the user needs, not what the user wants.
How I think of it is Apple having a list of features, tweeks and repairs intended for a new full iteration release.
But instead of dumping out a half-assed beta implementation of all of the changes (for which they are now infamous, example: OS X Yosemite), they’re putting out a small number of the features in finished form, a few at a time with each sub-iteration.
It’s not actually a new approach for Apple. It’s a better old approach.
Apple started adding huge new features from iOS8 dot releases, one of which brought in support for the Apple Watch.
You won’t get a 2 year cycle on iOS… It’s not possible. Frankly I like how they are doing it. Even if they wait a whole six months for new features, that is too slow. The mobile industry is still too new, changes are happening lightning quick.
This is also impacting the desktop OS. As you see, even Microsoft is now releasing major updates on a quarterly schedule.
Working on a 2 year cycle will produce better code, but if you do this today, you won’t sell it as much. Quarterly releases keep people’s attention span, both in downloads, upgrades, gripes and speculation.
Wash and release.