14 DAY TRIAL // In response to opinion pieces regarding Apple’s potential downfall, pundit John Gruber brings some objectivity as to why Apple’s software seems a tad too buggy these days.
Always putting forth pertinent arguments on matters involving the Cupertino company, Gruber points to reports discussing Apple’s apparent lack of attention to the details in recent years.
Annual releases seen as rushed releases
Something we reported on here as well, some users seem none too happy with Apple’s annual refresh cycles. Despite iOS being upgraded once every year since the original iPhone was shipped, OS X has had a radically different schedule throughout the years.
At its very beginnings, transitioning from NexTStep to OS X, the Mac operating system underwent a near-annual refresh rate. After OS X 10.4 (Tiger) was shipped, Apple cooled down a little and focused on fine tuning. This was also when the company shifted development resources away from OS X and over to iOS, for the introduction of the original iPhone.
Bitten off more than it could chew?
OS X is back on an annual refresh cycle, this time for different reasons. Gruber outlines this much in his insightful analysis, of which we’ll highlight only this paragraph here.
“My hope is that the reliability issues we are seeing in iOS and Mac OS X in recent releases are largely the inevitable result of Apple going through numerous transitions simultaneously. Extensions, XPC, iCloud Drive, Continuity — these things require coordination between all three of Apple’s platforms (mobile, desktop, cloud). That what we’ve been seeing the last few years is this decade’s equivalent of the first few years of Mac OS X — rapid development and flux that precedes an era of relative stability and a slower pace of change. Let iPhone, iPad, and Mac settle in — and let the rapid change and flux flow through Apple Watch, CarPlay, a new Apple TV, and whatever else comes next.”
In a nutshell, Apple is dealing with a lot right now. It’s not that it wants to give competitors a run for their money simply by speeding up software releases. The reality is Apple may have bitten off a little more than it can chew. But it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.
Apple is also said to be speeding up the refresh rate of its hardware products as well, particularly the iPhone. According to some sketchy reports, the company plans to introduce the iPhone 6S – which should normally launch in fall – around the spring period, closer to the Apple Watch debut. The iPhone 7 is said to be dropping in one year early, in the fall of this year.