Apple delays refresh of home screen in 'iOS 12' to focus on performance & reliability - report

Apple apparently had big plans on tap for this year's major iOS update, but is said to have delayed some of the tentpole features, including a new home screen and in-car features, until 2019, allowing it to instead focus on squashing bugs and improving performance.

Employees were told of plans to delay the features at a meeting with software chief Craig Federighi earlier this month, according to Axios. It was said that improvements to core apps like Mail, enhancements to the Camera app, and additions for photo editing and sharing were also on the chopping block.

Separately, AppleInsider was also informed by sources Tuesday morning that the company held an "unusual" meeting recently with its development team, though details on what was said in the meeting were not provided.

Because of the changes, the anticipated "iOS 12" update will feature additional focus on the stability of the operating system that drives iPhone and iPad.

iOS 12 will still boast tentpole features, as usual. Updates expected this year, according to Axios, include ARKit enhancements, new digital health capabilities, and enhanced parental controls.

If Apple sticks to its usual release patterns, as is expected, then "iOS 12" should be unveiled at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, before launching to the public in September.

In the interim, the company is working on a new iOS 11.3 update that will give users the ability to check the health of their device's battery, and choose to enable or disable automatic throttling of older devices to prevent random shutdowns. The update also includes four new Animoji, support for Messages in iCloud, ARKit 1.5, and tweaks to Apple Music and Apple News.

54 Comments

andrewj5790 296 comments · 9 Years

About 6 years ago

Cue the complainers. Tell us about how wealthy Apple is and they should be able to do both. /s

macxpress 5910 comments · 16 Years

andrewj5790 said:

Cue the complainers. Tell us about how wealthy Apple is and they should be able to do both. /s

Yup! Exactly! Apple has hundreds of thousands of employees so they should be able to do both! Apple is damned if they do and damned if they don't. I for one think this is a great idea for Apple. Do a feature freeze, clean up the OS and get it ready for additional features and major changes. Otherwise, I think they're just digging themselves a hole. Apple has taken a lot of crap for all of its OS's lately. They could probably follow this same plan for all of their OS's for this year.

If you go to 9to5Mac you'll see just this. People complaining that Apple can't do both. Google can do both, why can't Apple?

racerhomie3 1264 comments · 7 Years

Yes. A good move. iOS 12 should focus more on code refinement, like iOS 9. iOS 13 should be a feature year. I already think ARkit has left Apple with a 3 year software lead. 4K 60fps, Neural Engine & TrueDepth Camera on A11 a 2 year lead on hardware.