Apple halts development of future versions of iOS, MacOS to focus on fixing bugs, according to report

Apple has temporarily halted the development of next year's software updates for its range of devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This move, as reported by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, is a response to the excess of software glitches found in early versions of future software and is aimed at upholding quality control.

Rather than introducing new features, Apple's engineers are currently focusing on addressing these issues and improving software performance. Apple's commitment to maintaining the quality of its software, known for its user-friendly interfaces and privacy features, remains a top priority.

Over recent years, Apple has been placing a greater emphasis on software quality, even if it means delaying the introduction of new features. Key measures have been implemented to enhance quality control by software boss Craig Federighi, including "feature flags", which allow manual enabling of features for the sake of better isolation of its impact on the system, and an agreement known internally as "The Pact". Gurman states :

However, the latest development faced difficulties, with an unusually high number of "escapes" (bugs missed during internal testing) detected in upcoming operating systems. Consequently, Apple's software engineering team decided to pause new feature development for one week to instead focus on and address these issues. 

These delays are not expected to affect the consumer release schedule, as Apple plans on lifting the pause later this week. 

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