Gurman: Apple is moving away from the "one change a year" model for its products
October 7 that Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman published the latest issue of the "Power On" newsletter last night, mentioning that Apple is gradually abandoning the "annual update" product release strategy.
"Apple is phasing out its annual product upgrade cycle, a move that could make product launches more frequent and less troubling delays." Gurman said.
Traditionally, Apple usually releases a preview of the latest system in June every year, and a new generation of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other products in September and October every year. This has the following advantages:
It helps motivate employees to move towards the same goal. Employees won't be confused about when certain products need to be ready.
Analysts and investors know "what to expect". The company sees reliable sales growth at the same time each year, helping to drive the all-important holiday season (note from IT House: "Holiday season" in overseas often refers to the time of year when merchants and retailers have the highest sales, including Christmas, New Year, and other holidays such as Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.).
If Apple holds a big launch event in the fall, it will be easier to plan its marketing and public relations. This is because it ensures that the media can get back to work and attention after the holidays (usually the iPhone launch event is on the Tuesday or Wednesday of the week after the first Monday in September).
But even so, Gurman believes that this strategy is beginning to "crack". Because Apple's product range is increasing day by day, it is not practical to pursue iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods and other products every year. In addition, products such as the Apple Watch Ultra or iPhone SE do not need to be updated frequently.
Based on this analysis, Gurman said that Apple is gradually deviating from its plan to "release new products in the fall". However, Apple "may have to" take a more flexible approach, releasing a product when it's ready, and not releasing it if it's not.
The current iPad OS 18 also shows the downside of Apple's previous approach: the system has few new features and even contains a bug that has resulted in some iPad Pros with M4 processors It doesn't work, and the hardware must be replaced to fix the problem. As a result, the operating system was unusable for two weeks and was not restored until Thursday. The day before that, Apple was forced to withdraw the third beta of watchOS 11.1 because it caused a similar glitch. In September, the same issue occurred with the HomePod beta update.
Gurman said Apple is "clearly aware" of the problem. The pursuit of releasing most new hardware and software products in the fall has put undue pressure. At present, the company is gradually moving away from this path. For example, Apple officially announced Apple Intelligence in June, but has already announced in advance that the launch will be completed step by step.