Development on Apple’s forthcoming operating systems, including macOS 15 and iOS 18, was proceeding smoothly until it abruptly came to a halt for a one-week hiatus. This unusual pause was first reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who disclosed that the decision to halt development was communicated internally to Apple employees last week. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, is said to have initiated the pause after the senior management teams identified a notable number of bugs in the current operating systems.
Before introducing new features in iOS 18 and macOS 15, Apple intends to address the existing issues users are experiencing with iOS 17 and macOS 14. The Bloomberg report highlights that a week-long interruption in development will have a substantial impact on production. Given the substantial workforce dedicated to developing new operating systems at Apple, a large contingent will now be redirected towards resolving these bugs. Although Apple typically issues incremental software updates with bug fixes and security enhancements throughout the release cycle, this response differs from the norm. The exact number of bugs or issues within Apple’s current operating system versions remains undisclosed, but it evidently disrupted their usual progress.
While not every user of the latest iPhones and top-of-the-line Macs has encountered bugs on current OS versions, there have been some noteworthy incidents. On launch day, iPhones experienced persistent issues when attempting to restore data from another iPhone. A recent update addressed a software glitch causing digital burn-in effects on iPhone screens. Apple is actively investigating a bug that disrupts NFC and Apple Pay functionality during wireless charging in select BMW cars. These and other, less prominent bugs may have factored into Apple’s decision to pause future operating system development in order to focus on current issues.
The impact of this development pause on the release timeline for macOS 15 or iOS 18 remains uncertain. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a delay in the initial iOS release, but iPadOS 16 was delayed by approximately a month in 2022. A delay for macOS is less probable, as it typically debuts after iOS or iPadOS updates. Alternatively, some features announced as part of macOS 15 or iOS 18 may roll out after the initial release, similar to the introduction of the Journal app in iOS 17. Nevertheless, reports suggest that Apple has completed the initial development for macOS 15 and iOS 18, which raises hope for an on-time launch.
