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Apple is inching away from its annual product upgrade cycle, a move that could lead to more frequent releases and fewer jarring delays. Also: A look at when the company\u2019s\u00a0next products are coming out<\/a>, including\u00a0Apple Intelligence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week in\u00a0Power On<\/em>: Meta\u2019s new headsets show that\u00a0Apple has lost its way<\/a>\u00a0with the Vision Pro.<\/p>\n For years, Apple Inc. has updated its biggest products on an annual basis. We all know the drill: The company gives a preview of its new software in June and then rolls out the accompanying devices \u2014 iPhones, iPads and Macs \u2014 during September and October.<\/p>\n This approach has numerous benefits:<\/p>\n But despite those advantages, there are beginning to be cracks in the strategy. For one, Apple has a wider range of products these days, including several iPhones, iPads, Macs and AirPods. Updating all of those things at a yearly cadence isn\u2019t practical. Moreover, there are some products \u2014 such as the Apple Watch Ultra or iPhone SE \u2014 that don\u2019t need to be updated that often.<\/p>\n To be clear, Apple already deviates from its fall launch schedule. The company\u00a0rolled out new iPads this past May<\/a>\u00a0and debuted\u00a0faster Macs and a refreshed HomePod<\/a>\u00a0in January 2023. It also sometimes introduces new Macs in June, such as when it\u00a0launched the 15-inch MacBook Air<\/a>\u00a0at its Worldwide Developers Conference in 2023 and the\u00a013-inch version<\/a>\u00a0the year before that.<\/p>\n But it seems like Apple will have to go further toward a more fluid approach, where it releases products when they\u2019re ready and doesn\u2019t release them if they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n Apple is organized functionally \u2014 by hardware, software and services \u2014 rather than having individual divisions for each product category. That means company engineers often need to contribute to the entire swath of products. For instance, the audio team doesn\u2019t just have to develop new earbuds; it needs to work on speakers and acoustics for every Mac, Apple Watch and iPhone.<\/p>\n On top of all the products, Apple has a range of operating systems \u2014 iOS, macOS, visionOS, watchOS, tvOS and iPadOS, as well as the software running on AirPods and home devices. That makes it harder to get everything out the door on time.<\/p>\n In recent years, Apple was\u00a0forced to delay<\/a>\u00a0key new features in its software updates by weeks or months. That created some awkward situations. The company made bold pronouncements about the improvements at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, only for some features to slip from September until December or even March.<\/p>\n The latest software updates also show the strain of Apple\u2019s approach. The current iPad operating system \u2014 iPadOS 18 \u2014 has few new features and included a bug that made some M4 iPad Pros unusable upon installation. The hardware had to be replaced to fix the problem, and the OS was unavailable for two weeks before returning Thursday. A day earlier, Apple was forced to pull the third beta version of watchOS 11.1 after it caused a similar glitch. And the same story unfolded with a HomePod beta update in September.<\/p>\n The good news is, Apple has clearly realized that there\u2019s an issue. Pursuing a big fall launch for most of its new hardware and software offerings has become too much of a toll \u2014 and the company is ever-so-slightly inching away from that path.<\/p>\n To see this in action, look no further than Apple Intelligence. When it introduced the features in June, Apple\u00a0telegraphed that the rollout<\/a>\u00a0would take place over several months, with Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook even admitting on a conference call with analysts that the release would be staggered.<\/p>\n Now, Apple\u00a0hasn\u2019t been entirely forthright<\/a>\u00a0about the phased rollout in its marketing. It heralded the iPhone 16 as the first device built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence and plastered the logo for the new AI features all over its website and retail stores. And yet, the iPhone 16 didn\u2019t include Apple Intelligence when it launched last month.<\/p>\n In\u00a0previous years<\/a>, Apple would have avoided discussing features that wouldn\u2019t be ready for a while. It didn\u2019t want to feed the narrative that the upgrades were delayed. But, by pursuing more of a year-round release schedule, Apple can make this seem like a positive.<\/p>\n On the hardware front, there are clearly cases where an annual upgrade isn\u2019t necessary. Though the company will probably always release a new iPhone every year \u2014 for competitive, financial and marketing reasons \u2014 it is now more selective in other areas.<\/p>\n Instead of releasing an Ultra 3 watch this year, Apple just added a\u00a0new black color option<\/a>\u00a0to the Ultra 2. And the company didn\u2019t touch the Apple Watch SE, its low-end model. That put the focus on the flagship Series 10 watch, which got a fresh design and other new features.<\/p>\n The Ultra and SE will get updated in 2025, putting those non-Series models on a two-year refresh cycle. Some of this is because Apple\u2019s\u00a0hardware innovation has slowed down<\/a>, so it makes sense to save up two years\u2019 worth of features to make a bigger splash.<\/p>\nThe Starters<\/h3>\n
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