Forbes: Apple's iOS and OS X system quality decline threatens future growth

Beijing time, December 23 news, "Forbes" magazine online version published an analysis article on Monday, saying that despite the strong sales of Apple hardware, the recent problems with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite systems have sounded the alarm for Apple. The decline in software quality will not only jeopardize Apple's future growth, but also affect user loyalty.

Here is the article excerpt:

iPhone 6 sales hit a new record in the first weekend of its release, driving Apple's net profit to a record high in the quarter. Although Apple has been facing some problems in its development, the market and Apple's customers still love Apple products. So what factors may cause Apple to go downhill?

Declining software quality

In short, it's software. A growing number of developers and Apple-focused analysts have warned that the release of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite is representative of a systematic decline in the quality of Apple's software.

Analysts say the annual release schedule for new versions of iOS and OS X and the increasing complexity of Apple's overall ecosystem have put Apple engineers under tremendous pressure. At the same time, Android continues to gain overall market share and solve many of the fragmentation and quality issues that have made its user experience inferior to iOS.

Russell Ivanovic, a veteran iOS developer who has the most say in Apple's software quality, even named 2015 the "Year of Android." Ivanovic has been developing iOS apps for years, but his studio Shifty Jelly now makes 80% of its revenue from the Android platform.

After the release of iOS 8, several serious vulnerabilities were exposed, including problems with photos, ringtones, data usage, iCloud synchronization, cellular network connection, WiFi performance, security, etc. On some not-so-old machines, Yosemite encountered problems with WiFi, iCloud, user interface, performance, etc.

Impact on future growth

Judging from the current sales of iPhone and Mac hardware, Apple will not have a problem now. Any problems users encounter with Apple software will not stop them from buying Apple hardware. So the old question is, is this model sustainable?

Apple's strength comes from the fact that its products leave many deep and good impressions on consumers. Every touch, every swipe, and every good experience with an Apple product reminds users of "Apple". The vast majority of Apple users naturally believe that the next Apple product will provide a better user experience than before. But when users' expectations begin to shift, how quickly will they change their previous views?

We can get some clues from the adoption rate of iOS 8. If we compare the adoption rate of iOS 8 with that of iOS 7, we can see that the speed of iOS 8 being adopted by users is significantly slower than that of iOS 7. The adoption rate of iOS 7 started to slow down after reaching 70% six weeks after its release, while the adoption rate of iOS 8 started to slow down after reaching 40% only two weeks after its release.

Apple's problem may not only be a lack of suitable talent, but also the need to adjust to the current large-scale and more interconnected ecosystem.