Apple is currently working on iOS 28, iPadOS 28, and macOS 28, but the company has apparently changed up its development process this year. The new timeline might help engineers polish these upcoming operating systems more than they would have been able to under the previous method.
Apple’s process for developing its operating systems
Beautiful effects like Liquid Glass take months to design. | Image by Apple
In his newsletter Power On, industry insider Mark Gurman talks about Apple’s usual operating system development cycle. The company splits the development of each year’s operating systems into M1, M2, and M3. These, according to Gurman, represent three major milestones.
Each stage gets eight weeks of dedicated time. Engineers are given four weeks to code new features and then another four weeks to integrate them into their respective OS.
Poll
0 Votes
What problem currently affects Apple's operating systems the most?
iOS 28 and the others get more time for feature development
Hopefully that also means fun new additions for the iPhone Duo. | Image by PhoneArena
According to Gurman, Apple has decided to shake things up this time around. Instead of four weeks, the company has dedicated six weeks to brainstorming ideas, exploring how they could work, and then bringing them to life.
However, that doesn’t mean that the engineers are getting more time to integrate these new features. The overall timeline for M1 is still eight weeks and now employees will have only two weeks to implement new features into the “28” lineup of Apple’s operating systems.
Recommended For You
According to Gurman, Apple’s engineers are happy with the change. Employees believe that this will give them more time to perfect an idea instead of having to push out whatever it was that they managed to code in four weeks.
While that might be true, I do wonder if reducing the four-week window to only two weeks for implementing new features will have a negative impact on the quality of these updates. The new features themselves might not be rushed but their integration might just be. With how iOS has been as of late, I’d have imagined that Apple would want to dedicate any extra time required for further polish.
New bugs and glitches on iOS keep popping up. | Image by Reddit
Then again, if Apple’s own employees are praising the change, then I guess it really is a better way to approach development for iOS 28, iPadOS 28, and macOS 28. And if that’s the case, then I’m glad that the company is turning its attention to improving its operating systems, giving them that extra polish that always makes software better.
Abdullah loves smartphones, Virtual Reality, and audio gear. Though he covers a wide range of news his favorite is always when he gets to talk about the newest VR venture or when Apple sets the industry ablaze with another phenomenal release.
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts:
New accounts created within the last 24 hours may experience restrictions on how frequently they can
post or comment.
These limits are in place as a precaution and will automatically lift.
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
Things that are NOT allowed:
To help keep our community safe and free from spam, we apply temporary limits to newly created accounts: