Apple Already Working on iOS 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3

[Maura]

9to5 Mac reports today that Apple is already working on three new major iOS 8 updates, namely iOS 8.1, iOS 8.2, and iOS 8.3.

9to5 Mac says it comes by this news thanks to figures provided by the developer of a “major hardware-connected iOS application,” which show that all three of the above-named versions are currently being tested by Apple employees in the general vicinity of Cupertino, California, where Apple’s headquarters are.

To support these figures, 9to5 Mac says that its own Google Analytics for 9to5Mac.com show all three of the new iOS 8 versions to be visiting the website. And while they say that they have been seeing iOS 8.1-using visitors for many months, even before the release of iOS 8, iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3 users have only started appearing since iOS 8 was released in September.

9to5 Mac further notes that Apple working on three new major updates for an iOS at the same time represents a change in its usual development cycle, whereby it would usually be working on just iOS 8.1, for example, and iOS 9.0.

There could be several reasons why Apple might be doing this, according to 9to5 Mac, such as moving from annual iOS releases to releases that are tied in with specific hardware. Or another possible scenario is that Apple is actually speeding up its iOS development cycle, intending to release several major iOS 8 updates in 2015 prior to launching iOS 9 in September/October 2015.

Source: 9to5 Mac