Apple's Decision to Delay Some New Features and Focus on Software Quality Extends to Mac

Apple's reported plans to delay some features planned for iOS 12 until next year will similarly extend to the Mac, although to a lesser degree, according to Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg News.

trio iphone ipad mac
Gurman's sources corroborate an earlier report from Ina Fried at Axios, which claimed that Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi disclosed the revised plans during a meeting with employees earlier this month.

While the shift in strategy appears to extend to macOS, it reportedly will not affect the development cycles of watchOS or tvOS.

The company told its software engineering groups about the change this month, one of the people said. The shift will also affect this year's update to Mac computer software, but to a lesser degree, the person said, adding that planned upgrades to Apple Watch and Apple TV software won’t be affected.

Apple's plans to focus on the quality of its current software platforms will presumably result in a greater emphasis on bug fixes, performance improvements, and the general stability of its operating systems.

The shift in strategy follows a few embarrassing mishaps for Apple in recent months, including a major security vulnerability that enabled access to the root superuser account with a blank password on macOS High Sierra version 10.13.1. Apple promptly fixed the critical bug in a security update.

Just weeks later, MacRumors was alerted to a security flaw in macOS High Sierra version 10.13.2 that allowed the App Store menu in System Preferences to be unlocked with any password. While this bug was much less serious, it was still system behavior that obviously shouldn't have been possible.

Apple had a similar shift in strategy in 2015 with the release of iOS 9, and with some other macOS updates in recent years, according to the report, so this isn't Apple's first time doubling down on the polish of its software.

The report also corroborates that Apple was planning a redesigned grid of app icons on the home screen in iOS 12, but that change is now delayed until 2019 along with expanded photo management capabilities. There's also word of a multiplayer mode for augmented reality games, but it's unclear when it'll be ready.

Gurman still expects some smaller improvements to the Photos app to roll out in 2018, while the original report by Fried mentioned enhancements to the Health app and parental controls are still planned for release this year.

Related Forums: iOS 12, macOS Mojave

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...
mail categories macos

Apple's Redesigned Mail App is Expanding to the Mac — Here's When

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:02 am PST by
Apple plans to expand the iPhone's redesigned Mail app to the Mac starting with macOS 15.4, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The first macOS 15.4 beta should be made available in the coming weeks, and Apple has previously suggested that the iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4 series of software updates will be released to the public in April. The revamped Mail app debuted on all...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...

Top Rated Comments

Tmelon Avatar
91 months ago
Isn’t that what the past 3 years of MacOS updates were supposed to be?
Score: 58 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Stella Avatar
91 months ago
Mac OS is barely above "Maintenance" mode status as it is. The annual updates show that Apple have lost interest in applying innovative new functionality.

The days of Apple adding new exciting features to Mac OS are long gone.
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ds6778 Avatar
91 months ago
Apple has virtually endless resources and we can't even get solid updates without bugs. They need fresh blood in these meetings. All I see are a bunch of fat cats raking in the dough with no incentive to do anything groundbreaking.
Score: 43 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
91 months ago
Higher Sierra.


Another year of Mac stagnation.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cmaier Avatar
91 months ago
Wasn’t High Sierra supposed to be the release that eschewed new features to focus on quality? Where’d that get us?
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Delorean2006 Avatar
91 months ago
To be honest, I’m perfectly okay with this, iOS already has a lot of features that work for me and I personally, don’t need any other new features, new features are always nice to have, but, it offers pretty much everything I need on a daily basis. I definitely would rather have fluidity, with almost no frame drops, a fast moving operating system without nagging bugs that are just not necessary. I would like the smooth “it just works” iOS back and I hope iOS 12 can deliver that.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)