Gurman: iOS 17 to provide many of the “most requested features”

Apple changed its iOS 17 strategy later in its development process to add many new features, indicating that the update may be more significant than previously thought, bloombergReporting by Mark Gorman.

In January, Gurman said that iOS 17‌ might be a less significant update than iPhone updates in previous years due to the company’s heavy focus on its long-awaited mixed reality headset. Writing in his latest book Power On NewsletterGorman explained that changing the strategy during the development process of the update added many new features:

When Apple set out to develop iOS 17, the initial thought was to call it a mod release — one that focused more on fixing bugs and improving performance rather than adding new features (not unlike the approach the company took with Snow Leopard on Mac OS X Again. 2009). The hope was to avoid the problems of iOS 16, an ambitious update that suffered from missing deadlines and a rocky start. But later in the development process, the strategy changed. iOS 17 is now expected to have many “nice” features, even if it lacks support improvements like last year’s revamped lock screen. Codenamed “Dawn”, the goal of the program is to verify several of the most requested features of users.

As with previous iPhone‌ software updates, iOS 17‌ is expected to be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June before its fall launch. The update could introduce a host of improvements and new features, such as a next-generation CarPlay experience, changes to Siri, support for sideloading and alternative app stores, support for Apple’s mixed reality headset, and more.