Yearly Apple product releases are about as certain in life as the changing of the seasons. However, according to the latest reports, it appears that is set to change. According to Mark Gurman, the Apple writer for Bloomberg, has stated that Apple is now “inching away” from its annual product update cycle, suggesting that it will focus on quality first.
Apple has had somewhat of a tough go as of late. The latest iPadOS 18 rollout had to be halted due to the update ‘bricking’ the device, making it inoperable. Apple’s AI program, Apple Intelligence, was set to roll out with the iPhone 16, as they said the phone was built from the ‘ground-up’ specifically to take advantage of these newer AI features.
However, the iPhone 16 did not launch with the newest AI features. As a matter of fact, Apple Intelligence won’t be rolling out at all until sometime ‘later this year’.
Meanwhile, Apple Watch has seen a considerable slowdown in upgrades and rollouts. Rather than release an updated Ultra 3 watch, Apple simply added new color options to the Ultra 2, suggesting that it will give them time to focus on the flashier model, Series 10, which offers new features and a refreshed design.
It is a chain of problems that has seemingly plagued the company in recent times, and one of the solutions appears to be staggering release cycles in an effort to make sure important features are rolled out when they are actually ready.
Gurman says that Apple is risking spreading itself too thin, and are unable to keep up with the quality software updates of their newest hardware releases. Apple apparently has already recognized this fact, giving that their release schedule is already becoming more spread out.
While Gurman states that he doesn’t actually expect Apple to adhere to a staggered iPhone release any time soon, we hope that they recognize this fact and make incredible future iPhone models.
