Despite a report early today from Bloomberg, suggesting that Apple’s next version of iOS, iOS 7, may be delayed due to a significant overhaul, John Paczkowski of AllThingsD has confirmed that the report is false. Apple is reportedly still planning to ship iOS 7 on time, and is even pulling engineers from OS X development to make sure it meets their deadline.
Sources who declined to be named because they are forbidden to talk publicly about Apple’s plans tellAllThingsD that the company has been “borrowing” engineers from the OS X 10.9 team as part of an effort to double down on iOS 7. “Yes, yes — it’s essentially a repeat of the iPhone/Leopard scenario,” one source said, referring to Apple’s 2007 decision to pull engineers from OS X 10.5 to work on iPhone. “Not as much of a fire drill, though. It will ship on time.”
The report backs up previous claims that Apple was pulling resources from OS X to work on iOS 7, amid numerous reports that Apple is working on a major overhaul for their mobile platform (1, 2, 3) and is scrambling to have at least an initial preview of the app ready to distribute to developers at WWDC. Apple previously confirmed they were planning to unveil the next version of iOS and OS X at their WWDC conference in June.
Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, well known for his excellent track record and knowledge of goings-on at Apple, has also chimed in confirming the release will not, in fact, be delayed with his traditional one-word response: “Yep.”
The redesign is said to be due to Jony Ive’s preference for a flatter, more industrial design for iOS, compared to Scott Forstall’s preference for texture-based skeumorphic designs – and now that Ive is in charge of human interface at Apple, he’s seeing to it that the design of iOS 7 is up to his high standards. The redesign is said to be extremely significant, yet based on the simplicity Apple is well-known for.
It’s also worth noting that reports of a “delay” of iOS 7 were disingenuous in the first place – it’s simply not possible to delay something that hasn’t officially been given a release date – yet every year, the same reports fly around suggesting that Apple is facing delays. Somehow, it still manages to become a “story” every single year…
