According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple changed its iOS 17 strategy in its later development phases, bringing many new features that hint at a more major upgrade than anticipated. Apple released the first beta versions of iOS 16.4 and iPadOS 16.4 in February.
Apple might include new features in iOS 17
According to a leak, Apple intends to include new features in the upcoming iOS 17, which is set to be released in June 2023. According to MacRumors, Gurman believes the upgrade is more substantial than previously thought.
While previous rumours suggested that Apple would prioritise stability and fixing underlying issues, the company has apparently changed its strategy and plans to release iOS 17 with a slew of new features.
Gurman speculated in January that the impending iOS 17 release might not be as substantial as past iPhone updates because Apple was largely focused on its long-awaited mixed-reality headset. As is customary, the corporation will give a preview of the upgrade at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2023) in June before releasing it in the fall.
The update is likely to contain a variety of enhancements and new features, including an enhanced CarPlay experience, Siri changes, support for sideloading and rival app stores, mixed-reality headset support, and more.
Gurman noted in his “Power On” newsletter that a new method implemented during the update’s development process resulted in the addition of various new features, saying,
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.
