Later this month, Apple is said to release iOS 18.1 to the general public. It will include the first Apple Intelligence features, making AI available on iPhone devices for the first time.
On Oct. 28, iOS 18 is expected to get its first major round of updates. This writes Mark Gurman, Apple reporter at Bloomberg. This means the release comes half a month later than others predicted. According to Gurman, this is because Apple needs more time to ensure the AI features are released flawlessly and verify whether sufficient cloud capacity is available.
Ending the fixed release cycle
Gurman writes that a larger movement is underway at Apple in which it is breaking with the old release cycle. This is said to be primarily because there are too many active operating systems from different Apple devices. This makes it increasingly difficult to update all of these systems simultaneously.
As a result, new versions launch incomplete or with errors. That disappoints developers who had already been introduced to the new features announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June only to hear in September that a delay is necessary. It also frustrates users who update to the latest operating system and encounter a version with major bugs. The latest iPad version presented a good example of this, with a bug that rendered some iPad Pro M4 unusable.
The alternative Apple seems to be increasingly adopting is a loose approach in which updates are made when the systems are sufficiently ready. On the hardware side, this approach also seems to be preferred. Next year, the company is already planning several hardware announcements at different times throughout the year.