iOS is getting worse and worse. What’s wrong with it?

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Recently, foreign media Forbes published an article titled "The poor quality of iOS and OS X is holding Apple back." The article stated that the serious vulnerabilities in iOS 8 are worrying, and at the same time, Android's continuous self-improvement has increased its market share. If iOS has more and more quality problems, Apple's future will be worrying.

More and more developers believe that the frequent bugs in iOS 8 and OS X indicate that the quality of Apple's system software has declined. The iOS and OS X released each year are becoming more and more complex, which puts a lot of pressure on engineers. At the same time, Android's continuous self-improvement has increased its market share, and its user experience is not inferior to iOS.
iOS is getting worse and worse. What’s wrong with it?

Regarding iOS, we must first look at the prosperous data behind it

Less than a week after the new system was released, Apple announced that 46% of all iPhone, iPad and iPod devices were running iOS 8. However, Apple either delayed releasing the data or released data that showed a very small increase compared to 46%. The latest data after a long time only slightly exceeded 60%.

On the other hand, foreign statistics agency Chitika pointed out that before the release of iOS 8, 83.3% of iPhone users were using iOS 7, and 84.8% of iPad users were using iOS 7; earlier data showed that iOS 6 accounted for 92.7% of iPhone users and 82.9% of iPad users.

Although not official data from Apple, data from third-party organizations is also convincing. Compared with the data from iOS 8 users, the data from iOS 8 is a bit embarrassing, after all, Apple was counting on iOS 8 to set a record.

However, combined with the situation mentioned at the beginning of the article, the lower proportion seems reasonable.

The problems with the new version of the system are undoubtedly a heavy blow to Apple. Apple originally wanted to launch this new operating system to users when releasing its new smartphones iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but it did not expect that it would eventually turn into a public relations crisis.

But behind the prosperous data, we have to mention the iOS upgrade strategy. Understanding this will help us understand why 60% of the data is far below expectations.

The software and hardware of iOS devices are all controlled by Apple, and the models are not complicated. In this way, when updating the firmware for iOS devices, Apple can make unified arrangements and adapt the iOS system for devices suitable for upgrading.

More importantly, Apple not only dominates the upstream of the iOS ecosystem in terms of software and hardware, but also controls the AppStore, the channel for app distribution. If developers do not make corresponding adaptations after the iOS system is upgraded, then your app will not be available on the Appstore.

Under such a powerful policy, it is obviously unacceptable that the user usage ratio data of iOS 8 is still so bad. It can only be said that the user experience is really too bad and there are too many bugs.

What exactly is the problem with iOS?

The main reason is that, on the one hand, iOS is getting bigger and bigger, and iOS 8 is much more complicated than iOS 7; on the other hand, iOS 8 is becoming more and more open, with more and more third-party applications connected. Compared with the originally closed iOS, openness naturally comes at a price, which may be security issues or system instability. At present, both have occurred.

Another possible reason is that major versions are updated too quickly. After all, even Android, which is a mobile phone system, has only been updated to version 5.0, and the mainstream version is still 4.*, and it has not achieved a major update once a year.

Apple's software team seems to be unable to keep up with the pace of the hardware team. The new version of iOS is not released when the software team is ready, but because the new version of iPhone hardware is ready. The result of rushing to release the new version is that you may have to deal with all kinds of unexpected problems. New bugs keep appearing before the old ones are fixed. And you have to invest energy in developing a new generation of iOS, because the next year, the new generation of iPhone will definitely arrive as scheduled.

Apple has always kept a relatively small software team, but problems will eventually be attributed to the person responsible. Even if Apple recruits software employees who are all big names, if the number of people is too small, even if one person is used as 3 or 5 people, it will not be able to handle the work, and the result can be imagined. Moreover, many very detailed and miscellaneous tasks such as software testing do not necessarily require big names, but rather a large number of people, or in other words, a big name with many people to do it.

If you don’t make progress, you will fall behind. Android is becoming more and more perfect.

Sometimes, competition is the driving force. iOS and Android are strong competitors. However, in addition to stimulating continuous progress, facing strong competitors also means facing the embarrassing fact that if you don’t make progress, you will fall behind.

Previously, people were talking about the issue of Android imitating iOS, but now the situation has changed and the topic is actually that iOS is becoming more and more like Android.

According to foreign media comments, Android has more diverse functions and more personalization than iOS, while iOS has a higher level of sophistication. But with the release of iOS 8 and Android 5.0 Lollipop, everything has changed. iOS 8 is no longer inferior to Android in terms of functions, and Lollipop's new material design has reached a level of sophistication comparable to iOS. It seems that iOS users' sense of superiority will become less and less.

In general, the increasingly large and complex iOS 8 may be unable to bear the burden and lead itself into the abyss. I hope Apple is deeply aware of such problems. Returning to minimalism and discarding some flashy functions should be put on the agenda. Of course, recruiting more people to increase attention is also the most feasible trick.

Can iOS still be good? I hope the answer is yes.

Link to this article: What’s wrong with iOS, which is getting worse and worse?