The release of iOS 7.1 may be farther away than we expect, says a report in BGR. Trusted insiders tell the blog that the next major version of iOS may be released as far away as March 2014. That’s three months is a relatively short time in the real world, but in tech, it’s an eternity. Should we believe the intel from this trusted source? Is March really Apple’s next target release date?
Let’s look at the timing. A March launch would give Apple almost four months of testing time to go from the first beta seed of iOS 7.1, which was made available to developers in November, to its public release. Since iOS 7 launched, the company was on a rough schedule of updates every month. This timetable is similar to iOS 6 which was updated every 4-6 weeks after its initial launch. If Apple does push off a release until March, it will deviate significantly from what it has done in the past. For those keeping track, the most recent public version is iOS 7.0.4, which was released on November 14. Developers are a step ahead with iOS iOS 7.1 beta 2.
Apple is allegedly adding some new features and several critical bug fixes in iOS 7.1, but these are not yet included in the beta 2 version of iOS 7.1 that is in the hands of developers. Even if Apple did add a few new features, it still doesn’t explain the exceptionally long development cycle that would span more than four months.
Apple has begun seeding a new build of iOS 7.1 to testing partners, we have learned from a trusted source. iOS 7.1 beta 3 is said to bring several important bug fixes in addition to some new features, though our source was uncomfortable detailing these for us at this time.
If iOS in the Car is a new feature that is causing a headache as some claim, you would think Apple would disable it while they try to fix it. Apple would likely release other regular updates while it works out any bugs, rather make everyone wait four months for the next version.
If we assume this rumor from BGR is true, then we would expect to see intermediary versions of iOS, like version 7.05, to hit devices in the coming months. Though possible, it is not very likely as that version was not handed to developers for testing and more importantly, it has not been spotted in server logs. Sometimes Apple will release minor updates directly to the public, but they usually show up in server logs as the builds go though internal testing. iOS 7.1 has been spotted for a while, but no versions in between iOS 7.0.4 and iOS 7.1 are known to be in the wild.
Do you think Apple will push of iOS 7.1 to March or is this one of those hit-or-miss rumors that is a miss this time?
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