iPhone users will have to wait until next year for an updated home screen.
Several new iOS features have been pushed back to 2019, including a new home screen design, better photo editing tools, and an updated mail app, according to a new report from Axios. “In-car user interfaces” for the iPhone have also been bumped to next year.
Apple will focus on device functionality and decreasing support issues as it works towards its major iOS update, which typically released in the fall. Improving augmented reality — something CEO Tim Cook has made clear is a priority — is also on the agenda. Apple’s recently launched ARKit allows developers to create AR apps for iOS.
The change in plans was announced by Apple VP of software engineering Craig Federighi to employees earlier this month, according to Axios.
Apple is set to release its latest quarterly earnings on Thursday. The world’s biggest tech company has seen its stock jump about 33 percent in the last year, thanks in large part to healthy iPhone sales. But tepid demand for iPhone X, its top-line smartphone, has the company scaling back its production, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
The delay of key iOS updates also comes on the heels of the company’s admission it had been throttling older iPhones to preserve battery life. Apple apologized and added a feature to turn off the throttling.