Although iOS 17 was expected to be basically a maintenance update, Apple decided later in the development process to add several new features that will make the version more important than first believed, says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest “Power On” newsletter.
In January, Gurman said that iOS 17 may be a less significant iOS update than the ones we’ve seen over the last several years, thanks to Apple’s directing its resources to the development of a mixed-reality headset. However, Gurman says that it turns out that a change in strategy has resulted in several new features for iOS 17:
When Apple set out to develop iOS 17, the initial thinking was to call it a tuneup release — one focused more on fixing bugs and improving performance than adding new features (not unlike the approach the company took with Snow Leopard on Mac OS X back in 2009). The hope was to avoid the problems of iOS 16, an ambitious update that suffered from missed deadlines and a buggy start. But later in the development process, the strategy changed. The iOS 17 release is now expected to boast several “nice to have” features, even if it lacks a tentpole improvement like last year’s revamped lock screen. The goal of the software, codenamed “Dawn,” is to check off several of users’ most requested features.
As is traditional, iOS 17 is expected to be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June ahead of a fall launch.
(Image: Android Headlines)