Another day, another piece of bad news for Apple. Now, it looks like iOS 7 might be delayed.
Fresh off of the news that Goldman Sachs downgraded Apple’s stock (NASDAQ:APPL) and Jim Cramer’s rough assessment of the company’s financial future, rumors indicated iOS 7, the rumored mobile operating system for Apple mobile products, may be delayed.
We previously reported that Apple historically announces a new operating system update at the World Wide Developers Conference, or WWDC. Last year, Apple used the event to give the first glimpses into both iOS 6 and Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. However, it seems like they won’t be able to do so this year because iOS 7 isn’t even finished yet.
According to a John Gruber blog post on Daring Fireball, iOS 7 is in such dire straits that Apple is moving developers and engineers from the Mac OS X 10.9 project to iOS 7 in order to finish the operating system by WWDC 2013.
“What I’ve heard: iOS 7 is running behind, and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on it. (Let me know if you’ve heard this song before.)”
Gruber is referencing the delay in Apple Mac OS X Leopard, which was delayed because Apple wanted to focus on the iPhone instead. Does this mean that OS X 10.9 will be delayed, since resources are being taken away from that group? It’s hard to say, but it seems like a safe bet. Apple clearly is focused on mobile development and improving the iPhone, since it is undoubtably the most popular Apple device on the market and has vaulted Apple to become one of the best companies, financially, in the world.
Gruber also mentioned Jony Ive, Apple’s new software head:
Regarding Jony Ive and iOS: Word on the street is that iOS engineers with carry privileges all have some sort of polarizing filter on their iPhone displays, such that it greatly decreases viewing angles, thus making it difficult for observers to see the apparently rather significant system-wide UI overhaul.
Lots of interesting stuff in such a short post. The concept of a privacy screen isn’t that unimaginable — similar screen covers were developed for consumers. However, the reason for a privacy screen is the biggest part of the news; it seems like much of changes in iOS 7 will be cosmetic.